Exploiting Amoeboid and Non-Vertebrate Animal Model Systems to Study the Virulen

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Exploiting Amoeboid and Non-Vertebrate Animal Model Systems to Study

the Virulence of Human Pathogenic Fungi

http://www.scientistlive.com/18439/exploiting-amoeboid-and-

nonvertebrate-animal-model-systems-to-study-the-virulence-of-human-

pathogenic-fungi.thtml

Scientist Live* - London,UK

ABSTRACT

Experiments with insects, protozoa, nematodes, and slime molds have

recently come to the forefront in the study of host–fungal

interactions. Many of the virulence factors required for

pathogenicity in mammals are also important for fungal survival

during interactions with non-vertebrate hosts, suggesting that

fungal virulence may have evolved, and been maintained, as a

countermeasure to environmental predation by amoebae and nematodes

and other small non-vertebrates that feed on microorganisms.

Host innate immune responses are also broadly conserved across many

phyla. The study of the interaction between invertebrate model hosts

and pathogenic fungi therefore provides insights into the mechanisms

underlying pathogen virulence and host immunity, and complements the

use of mammalian models by enabling whole-animal high throughput

infection assays.

This review aims to assist researchers in identifying appropriate

invertebrate systems for the study of particular aspects of fungal

pathogenesis.

Authors: Eleftherios Mylonakis, Arturo Casadevall, Frederick M.

Ausubel

To read the original journal article, click here.

(This journal article was originally published in PLoS. Open Access.)