Of Model Hosts and Man: Using Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster and Galleria mellonella as Model Hosts for Infectious Disease Research (original) (raw)

Abstract

The use of invertebrate model hosts has increased in popularity due to numerous advantages of invertebrates over mammalian models, including ethical, logistical and budgetary features. This review provides an introduction to three model hosts, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and the larvae of Galleria mellonella, the greater wax moth. It highlights principal experimental advantages of each model, for C. elegans the ability to run high-throughput assays, for D. melanogaster the evolutionarily conserved innate immune response, and for G. mellonella the ability to conduct experiments at 37°C and easily inoculate a precise quantity of pathogen. It additionally discusses recent research that has been conducted with each host to identify pathogen virulence factors, study the immune response, and evaluate potential antimicrobial compounds, focusing principally on fungal pathogens.

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Authors and Affiliations

1. Division of Infectious Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
   Justin Glavis-Bloom & Maged Muhammed
2. Harvard Medical School, Division of Infectious Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit street, Gray-Jackson 5, Room GRJ-504, Boston, MA, 02114, USA
   Eleftherios Mylonakis

Authors

1. Justin Glavis-Bloom
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2. Maged Muhammed
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3. Eleftherios Mylonakis
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Correspondence toEleftherios Mylonakis .

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Editors and Affiliations

1. Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Fruit Street 55, Boston, 02114-2696, Massachusetts, USA
   Eleftherios Mylonakis
2. Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Street 185, Boston, 02114, Massachusetts, USA
   Frederick M. Ausubel
3. Schepens Eye Research Inst., Harvard Medical School, Staniford St. 20, Boston, 02114, Massachusetts, USA
   Michael Gilmore
4. Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Dept. Microbiology & Immunology, Yeshiva University, Morris Park Ave. 1300, Bronx, 10461, New York, USA
   Arturo Casadevall

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Glavis-Bloom, J., Muhammed, M., Mylonakis, E. (2012). Of Model Hosts and Man: Using Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster and Galleria mellonella as Model Hosts for Infectious Disease Research. In: Mylonakis, E., Ausubel, F., Gilmore, M., Casadevall, A. (eds) Recent Advances on Model Hosts. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 710. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5638-5\_2

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• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5638-5\_2
• Published: 27 September 2011
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• Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-5637-8
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