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Galleria mellonella Reveals Niche Differences Between Highly Pathogenic and Closely Related Strains of Francisella spp.

Francisella tularensis, a highly virulent bacteria that causes the zoonotic disease tularemia, is considered a potential agent of biological warfare and bioterrorism. Although the host range for several species within the Francisella is known, little is known about the natural reservoirs of various...

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Autores principales: Thelaus, Johanna, Lundmark, Eva, Lindgren, Petter, Sjödin, Andreas, Forsman, Mats
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5996057/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29922601
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2018.00188
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author Thelaus, Johanna
Lundmark, Eva
Lindgren, Petter
Sjödin, Andreas
Forsman, Mats
author_facet Thelaus, Johanna
Lundmark, Eva
Lindgren, Petter
Sjödin, Andreas
Forsman, Mats
author_sort Thelaus, Johanna
collection PubMed
description Francisella tularensis, a highly virulent bacteria that causes the zoonotic disease tularemia, is considered a potential agent of biological warfare and bioterrorism. Although the host range for several species within the Francisella is known, little is known about the natural reservoirs of various Francisella species. The lack of knowledge regarding the environmental fates of these pathogens greatly reduces the possibilities for microbial risk assessments. The greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella) is an insect of the order Lepidoptera that has been used as an alternative model to study microbial infection during recent years. The aim of this study was to evaluate G. mellonella as a model system for studies of human pathogenic and closely related opportunistic and non-pathogenic strains within the Francisella genus. The employed G. mellonella larvae model demonstrated differences in lethality between human pathogenic and human non-pathogenic or opportunistic Francisella species. The F. novicida, F. hispaniensis and F. philomiragia strains were significantly more virulent in the G. mellonella model than the strains of human pathogens F. t. holarctica and F. t. tularensis. Our data show that G. mellonella is a possible in vivo model of insect immunity for studies of both opportunistic and virulent lineages of Francisella spp., that produces inverse results regarding lethality in G. mellonella and incapacitating disease in humans. The results provide insight into the potential host specificity of F. tularensis and closely related members of the same genus, thus increasing our present understanding of Francisella spp. ecology.
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spelling pubmed-59960572018-06-19 Galleria mellonella Reveals Niche Differences Between Highly Pathogenic and Closely Related Strains of Francisella spp. Thelaus, Johanna Lundmark, Eva Lindgren, Petter Sjödin, Andreas Forsman, Mats Front Cell Infect Microbiol Microbiology Francisella tularensis, a highly virulent bacteria that causes the zoonotic disease tularemia, is considered a potential agent of biological warfare and bioterrorism. Although the host range for several species within the Francisella is known, little is known about the natural reservoirs of various Francisella species. The lack of knowledge regarding the environmental fates of these pathogens greatly reduces the possibilities for microbial risk assessments. The greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella) is an insect of the order Lepidoptera that has been used as an alternative model to study microbial infection during recent years. The aim of this study was to evaluate G. mellonella as a model system for studies of human pathogenic and closely related opportunistic and non-pathogenic strains within the Francisella genus. The employed G. mellonella larvae model demonstrated differences in lethality between human pathogenic and human non-pathogenic or opportunistic Francisella species. The F. novicida, F. hispaniensis and F. philomiragia strains were significantly more virulent in the G. mellonella model than the strains of human pathogens F. t. holarctica and F. t. tularensis. Our data show that G. mellonella is a possible in vivo model of insect immunity for studies of both opportunistic and virulent lineages of Francisella spp., that produces inverse results regarding lethality in G. mellonella and incapacitating disease in humans. The results provide insight into the potential host specificity of F. tularensis and closely related members of the same genus, thus increasing our present understanding of Francisella spp. ecology. Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-06-05 /pmc/articles/PMC5996057/ /pubmed/29922601 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2018.00188 Text en Copyright © 2018 Thelaus, Lundmark, Lindgren, Sjödin and Forsman. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Microbiology
Thelaus, Johanna
Lundmark, Eva
Lindgren, Petter
Sjödin, Andreas
Forsman, Mats
Galleria mellonella Reveals Niche Differences Between Highly Pathogenic and Closely Related Strains of Francisella spp.
title Galleria mellonella Reveals Niche Differences Between Highly Pathogenic and Closely Related Strains of Francisella spp.
title_full Galleria mellonella Reveals Niche Differences Between Highly Pathogenic and Closely Related Strains of Francisella spp.
title_fullStr Galleria mellonella Reveals Niche Differences Between Highly Pathogenic and Closely Related Strains of Francisella spp.
title_full_unstemmed Galleria mellonella Reveals Niche Differences Between Highly Pathogenic and Closely Related Strains of Francisella spp.
title_short Galleria mellonella Reveals Niche Differences Between Highly Pathogenic and Closely Related Strains of Francisella spp.
title_sort galleria mellonella reveals niche differences between highly pathogenic and closely related strains of francisella spp.
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5996057/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29922601
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2018.00188
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