Abstract
The pathogenicity of six mutants of Aspergillus fumigatus that had been previously characterized in mice was assessed in Toll-deficient Drosophila melanogaster flies. Four out of six mutants of A. fumigatus, which displayed attenuated virulence in mice due to defects in siderophore biosynthesis (△sidA, △sidD), PABA metabolism (H515), and starvation stress response (△cpcA), also had attenuated virulence in the fly model. In addition, similarly to previous findings in the mouse model, △sidG mutant that is defective in extracellular siderophore biosynthesis retained full virulence in Toll-deficient flies. Overall, our studies reveal a high level of concordance between fly and murine models of invasive aspergillosis.
Acknowledgments
We thank N. D. Albert for excellent technical assistance. Financial support was provided by the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center (an institutional research grant and the M. D. Anderson Faculty E. N. Cobb Scholar Award Research Endowment to D.P.K.) and Austrian Science Foundation [FWF P-18606-B11 to H.H.]
Declaration of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this paper.
This paper was first published online on Early Online on 29 September 2009.