Cargando…

Rearing and Maintenance of Galleria mellonella and Its Application to Study Fungal Virulence

Galleria mellonella larvae have been widely used as alternative non-mammalian models for the study of fungal virulence and pathogenesis. The larvae can be acquired in small volumes from worm farms, pet stores, or other independent suppliers commonly found in the United States and parts of Europe. Ho...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Firacative, Carolina, Khan, Aziza, Duan, Shuyao, Ferreira-Paim, Kennio, Leemon, Diana, Meyer, Wieland
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7558789/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32784766
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof6030130
_version_ 1783594716909010944
author Firacative, Carolina
Khan, Aziza
Duan, Shuyao
Ferreira-Paim, Kennio
Leemon, Diana
Meyer, Wieland
author_facet Firacative, Carolina
Khan, Aziza
Duan, Shuyao
Ferreira-Paim, Kennio
Leemon, Diana
Meyer, Wieland
author_sort Firacative, Carolina
collection PubMed
description Galleria mellonella larvae have been widely used as alternative non-mammalian models for the study of fungal virulence and pathogenesis. The larvae can be acquired in small volumes from worm farms, pet stores, or other independent suppliers commonly found in the United States and parts of Europe. However, in countries with no or limited commercial availability, the process of shipping these larvae can cause them stress, resulting in decreased or altered immunity. Furthermore, the conditions used to rear these larvae including diet, humidity, temperature, and maintenance procedures vary among the suppliers. Variation in these factors can affect the response of G. mellonella larvae to infection, thereby decreasing the reproducibility of fungal virulence experiments. There is a critical need for standardized procedures and incubation conditions for rearing G. mellonella to produce quality, unstressed larvae with the least genetic variability. In order to standardize these procedures, cost-effective protocols for the propagation and maintenance of G. mellonella larvae using an artificial diet, which has been successfully used in our own laboratory, requiring minimal equipment and expertise, are herein described. Examples for the application of this model in fungal pathogenicity and gene knockout studies as feasible alternatives for traditionally used animal models are also provided.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7558789
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-75587892020-10-26 Rearing and Maintenance of Galleria mellonella and Its Application to Study Fungal Virulence Firacative, Carolina Khan, Aziza Duan, Shuyao Ferreira-Paim, Kennio Leemon, Diana Meyer, Wieland J Fungi (Basel) Review Galleria mellonella larvae have been widely used as alternative non-mammalian models for the study of fungal virulence and pathogenesis. The larvae can be acquired in small volumes from worm farms, pet stores, or other independent suppliers commonly found in the United States and parts of Europe. However, in countries with no or limited commercial availability, the process of shipping these larvae can cause them stress, resulting in decreased or altered immunity. Furthermore, the conditions used to rear these larvae including diet, humidity, temperature, and maintenance procedures vary among the suppliers. Variation in these factors can affect the response of G. mellonella larvae to infection, thereby decreasing the reproducibility of fungal virulence experiments. There is a critical need for standardized procedures and incubation conditions for rearing G. mellonella to produce quality, unstressed larvae with the least genetic variability. In order to standardize these procedures, cost-effective protocols for the propagation and maintenance of G. mellonella larvae using an artificial diet, which has been successfully used in our own laboratory, requiring minimal equipment and expertise, are herein described. Examples for the application of this model in fungal pathogenicity and gene knockout studies as feasible alternatives for traditionally used animal models are also provided. MDPI 2020-08-07 /pmc/articles/PMC7558789/ /pubmed/32784766 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof6030130 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Firacative, Carolina
Khan, Aziza
Duan, Shuyao
Ferreira-Paim, Kennio
Leemon, Diana
Meyer, Wieland
Rearing and Maintenance of Galleria mellonella and Its Application to Study Fungal Virulence
title Rearing and Maintenance of Galleria mellonella and Its Application to Study Fungal Virulence
title_full Rearing and Maintenance of Galleria mellonella and Its Application to Study Fungal Virulence
title_fullStr Rearing and Maintenance of Galleria mellonella and Its Application to Study Fungal Virulence
title_full_unstemmed Rearing and Maintenance of Galleria mellonella and Its Application to Study Fungal Virulence
title_short Rearing and Maintenance of Galleria mellonella and Its Application to Study Fungal Virulence
title_sort rearing and maintenance of galleria mellonella and its application to study fungal virulence
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7558789/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32784766
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof6030130
work_keys_str_mv AT firacativecarolina rearingandmaintenanceofgalleriamellonellaanditsapplicationtostudyfungalvirulence
AT khanaziza rearingandmaintenanceofgalleriamellonellaanditsapplicationtostudyfungalvirulence
AT duanshuyao rearingandmaintenanceofgalleriamellonellaanditsapplicationtostudyfungalvirulence
AT ferreirapaimkennio rearingandmaintenanceofgalleriamellonellaanditsapplicationtostudyfungalvirulence
AT leemondiana rearingandmaintenanceofgalleriamellonellaanditsapplicationtostudyfungalvirulence
AT meyerwieland rearingandmaintenanceofgalleriamellonellaanditsapplicationtostudyfungalvirulence