Drosophila and Galleria insect model hosts

Figures & data

Table 1 Summary of non-vertebrate host models that have been adapted for the study of medically important fungi

Fungus	Drosophila melanogaster	Galleria mellonella	Bombyx mori	Caenorhabditis elegans	Acanthamoeba ycastellanii	Dictyostelium ydiscoideum	Culex quinquefasciatus	Blattella germanica	Arabidopsis thaliana
Molds
Aspergillus	+ [11]	+ [17]						+ [31]
Zygomycetes	+ [12]
Fusarium	+ [13]	+ [18]							+ [32]
Scedosporium	+ [13]
Dimorphic fungi
Histoplasma				+ [24]	+ [27]
Blastomyces					+ [27]
Sporothrix					+ [27]
Yeasts
Candida	+ [14]	+ [19]	+ [23]	+ [25]			+ [30]
Cryptococcus	+ [15]	+ [20]		+ [26]	+ [28]	+ [29]
Pneumocystis	+ [16]	+ [21]
Dermatophytes
Microsporum	+ [22]

+ denotes that the corresponding non-vertebrate host has been used for studying the specific fungal pathogen. References are noted within the bracket.

Table 2 Comparative characteristics of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and the greater wax moth Galleria mellonella heterologous hosts in the study of host-fungal interactions

Characteristic	Drosophila melanogaster	Galleria mellonella
Genetic tractability	+	−
Sequenced genome	Completed	−
Insect mutant strain availability	+	−
Gene microarrays	+	+
RNA interference libraries	+	−
Availability of phagocytic cell lines	+	+
Potential for harvesting of phagocytes for ex vivo studies	−	+
Adaptive immunity	−	−
Chemokine/cytokine production	−	−
Need for simple laboratory resources	±	+
Precision in fungal inoculum delivery with injection	±	+
Need for genetic crossing	+	−
Overall cost	Low	Low
Correlation of virulence factors with mammalian models	+	+
Potential for large-scale screening studies of fungal genomes	+	+
Survival at mammalian physiologic temperature (37°C)	-	+
Suitable for orally absorbed antifungal compound testing studies	+	+
Suitable for parenteral antifungal compound testing studies	±	+
Precision in parenteral delivery of drugs	−	+
Potential for pharmacokinetic studies	−	−
Potential for pharmacodynamic studies	−	+

+ denotes the presence and − denotes the absence of the corresponding characteristic.