Innate immune specificity in copepod-tapeworm system

We present Illumina-generated RNASeq data from a system consisting the copepod Macrocyclops albidus and its natural parasite, the tapeworm Schistocephalus solidus, in which a high degree of innate immune specificity was observed for the first time. Using homologous (same family) vs. heterologous (unrelated) priming-challenge procedures, we first show that copepods exposed to the same parasite family benefit from reduced secondary infections. We then focused on exposed-but-not-infected copepods in the first exposure to use a transcriptome method to discriminate between immunity that was either specific or unspecific in terms of tapeworm type discrimination.