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.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alarco AM et al (2004) Immune-deficient Drosophila melanogaster: a model for the innate immune response to human fungal pathogens. J Immunol 172:5622–5628
Apidianakis Y et al (2004) Challenge of Drosophila melanogaster with Cryptococcus neoformans and role of the innate immune response. Eukaryot Cell 3:413–419
Bazopoulou D, Tavernarakis N (2009) The NemaGENETAG initiative: large scale transposon insertion gene-tagging in Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetica 137:39–46
Begun J, Sifri CD, Goldman S, Calderwood SB, Ausubel FM (2005) Staphylococcus aureus virulence factors identified by using a high-throughput Caenorhabditis elegans-killing model. Infect Immun 73:872–877
Breger J et al (2007) Antifungal chemical compounds identified using a C. elegans pathogenicity assay. PLoS Pathog 3:e18
Brennan M, Thomas DY, Whiteway M, Kavanagh K (2002) Correlation between virulence of Candida albicans mutants in mice and Galleria mellonella larvae. FEMS Immunol Med Microbiol 34:153–157
Brenner S (1974) The genetics of Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics 77:71–94
Chamilos G et al (2006) Drosophila melanogaster as a facile model for large-scale studies of virulence mechanisms and antifungal drug efficacy in Candida species. J Infect Dis 193:1014–1022
Coleman JJ et al (2010) Characterization of plant-derived saponin natural products against Candida albicans. ACS Chem Biol 5:321–332
Cotter G, Doyle S, Kavanagh K (2000) Development of an insect model for the in vivo pathogenicity testing of yeasts. FEMS Immunol Med Microbiol 27:163–169
Cowen LE et al (2009) Harnessing Hsp90 function as a powerful, broadly effective therapeutic strategy for fungal infectious disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106:2818–2823
Diaz MH et al (2008) Pseudomonas aeruginosa induces localized immunosuppression during pneumonia. Infect Immun 76:4414–4421
Douglas LJ (2003) Candida biofilms and their role in infection. Trends Microbiol 11:30–36
Fire A et al (1998) Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature 391:806–811
Fuchs BB et al (2010) Role of filamentation in Galleria mellonella killing by Candida albicans. Microbes Infect 12:488–496
Garvis S et al (2009) Caenorhabditis elegans semi-automated liquid screen reveals a specialized role for the chemotaxis gene cheB2 in Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence. PLoS Pathog 5:e1000540
Giacomotto J, Ségalat L (2010) High-throughput screening and small animal models, where are we? Br J Pharmacol 160:204–216
Hoffmann J (2003) The immune response of Drosophila. Nature 426:33–38
Kavanagh K, Fallon JP (2010) Galleria mellonella larvae as models for studying fungal virulence. Fungal Biol Rev 24:79–83
Kurz CL et al (2003) Virulence factors of the human opportunistic pathogen Serratia marcescens identified by in vivo screening. EMBO J 22:1451–1460
Lemaitre B (2004) The road to toll. Nat Rev Immunol 4:521–527
Lemaitre B, Hoffmann J (2007) The host defense of Drosophila melanogaster. Annu Rev Immunol 25:697–743
Lemaitre B, Reichhart JM, Hoffmann JA (1997) Drosophila host defense: differential induction of antimicrobial peptide genes after infection by various classes of microorganisms. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 23:14614–14619
Lindsay MA (2003) Target discovery. Nat Rev Drug Discov 2:831–838
Lionakis MS et al (2005) Toll-deficient Drosophila flies as a fast, high-throughput model for the study of antifungal drug efficacy against invasive aspergillosis and Aspergillus virulence. J Infect Dis 191:1188–1195
Mahajan-Miklos S, Tan MW, Rahme LG, Ausubel FM (1999) Molecular mechanisms of bacterial virulence elucidated using a Pseudomonas aeruginosa-Caenorhabditis elegans pathogenesis model. Cell 96:47–56
Mowlds P, Kavanagh K (2008) Effect of pre-incubation temperature on susceptibility of Galleria mellonella larvae to infection by Candida albicans. Mycopathologia 165:5–12
Moy T et al (2009) High-throughput screen for novel antimicrobials using a whole animal infection model. ACS Chem Biol 4:527–533
Mueller NJ, Fishman JA (2003) Asymptomatic pulmonary cryptococcosis in solid organ transplantation: report of four cases and review of the literature. Transpl Infect Dis 5:140–143
Mylonakis E (2008) Galleria mellonella and the study of fungal pathogenesis: making the case for another genetically tractable model host. Mycopathologia 165:1–3
Mylonakis E et al (2004) Cryptococcus neoformans Kin1 protein kinase homologue, identified through a Caenorhabditis elegans screen, promotes virulence in mammals. Mol Microbiol 54:407–419
Mylonakis E et al (2005) Galleria mellonella as a model system to study Cryptococcus neoformans pathogenesis. Infect Immun 73:3842–3850
O’Callaghan D, Vergunst A (2010) Non-mammalian animal models to study infectious disease: worms or fly fishing? Curr Opin Microbiol 13:79–85
Okoli I et al (2009) Identification of antifungal compounds active against Candida albicans using an improved high-throughput Caenorhabditis elegans assay. PLoS One 4:e7025
Pukkila-Worley R, Peleg A, Tampakakis E, Mylonakis E (2009) Candida albicans hyphal formation and virulence assessed using a Caenorhabditis elegans infection model. Eukaryot Cell 8:1750–1758
Riddle DL, Blumenthal T, Meyer BG, Priess JR (1997) C. elegans II, 2nd edn. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Plainview
Rizki RM, Rizki TM (1984) Selective destruction of a host blood cell type by a parasitoid wasp. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 81:6154–6158
Rowan R, Moran C, McCann M, Kavanagh K (2009) Use of Galleria mellonella larvae to evaluate the in vivo anti-fungal activity of [Ag2(mal)(phen)3]. Biometals 22:461–467
Sekiya M et al (2008) A cyclopentanediol analogue selectively suppresses the conserved innate immunity pathways, Drosophila IMD and TNF-alpha pathways. Biochem Pharmacol 75:2165–2174
Spring DR (2005) Chemical genetics to chemical genomics: small molecules offer big insights. Chem Soc Rev 34:472–482
Tan MW, Rahme LG, Sternberg JA, Tompkins RG, Ausubel FM (1999) Pseudomonas aeruginosa killing of Caenorhabditis elegans used to identify P. aeruginosa virulence factors. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 96:2408–2413
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this paper
Cite this paper
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
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5638-5_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-5637-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-5638-5
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)