Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Oct 2;7(7):840-5.
doi: 10.1080/21505594.2016.1203486. Epub 2016 Jun 30.

Galleria mellonella as a model host for microbiological and toxin research

Olivia L Champion  1 , Sariqa Wagley  1 , Richard W Titball  1
Affiliations

Galleria mellonella as a model host for microbiological and toxin research

Olivia L Champion et al. Virulence. .

Abstract

Mammals are widely used by microbiologists as a model host species to study infectious diseases of humans and domesticated livestock. These studies have been pivotal for our understanding of mechanisms of virulence and have allowed the development of diagnostics, pre-treatments and therapies for disease. However, over the past decade we have seen efforts to identify organisms which can be used as alternatives to mammals for these studies. The drivers for this are complex and multifactorial and include cost, ethical and scientific considerations. Galleria mellonella have been used as an alternative infection model since the 1980s and its utility for the study of bacterial disease and antimicrobial discovery was recently comprehensively reviewed. The wider applications of G. mellonella as a model host, including its susceptibility to 29 species of fungi, 7 viruses, 1 species of parasite and 16 biological toxins, are described in this perspective. In addition, the latest developments in the standardisation of G. mellonella larvae for research purposes has been reviewed.

Keywords: Galleria mellonella; antibiotics; end point; fungi; genome; infection model; pathological score; toxin; virus.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Tsai CJ, Loh JM, Proft T. Galleria mellonella infection models for the study of bacterial diseases and for antimicrobial drug testing. Virulence 2016. Apr 2; 7(3):214-29; http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/21505594.2015.1135289. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cotter G, Doyle S, Kavanagh K. Development of an insect model for the in vivo pathogenicity testing of yeasts. FEMS Immunol Med Microbiol 2000; 27(2):163-9; PMID:10640612; http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1111/j.1574-695X.2000.tb01427.x - DOI - PubMed
    1. Borghi E, Romagnoli S, Fuchs BB, Cirasola D, Perdoni F, Tosi D, Braidotti P, Bulfamante G, Morace G, Mylonakis E. Correlation between Candida albicans biofilm formation and invasion of the invertebrate host Galleria mellonella. Future Microbiol 2014; 9(2):163-73; PMID:24571071; http://dx.doi.org/ 10.2217/fmb.13.159 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mylonakis E, Moreno R, El Khoury JB, Idnurm A, Heitman J, Calderwood SB, Ausubel FM, Diener A. Galleria mellonella as a model system to study Cryptococcus neoformans pathogenesis. Infect Immun 2005; 73(7):3842-50; PMID:15972469; http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1128/IAI.73.7.3842-3850.2005 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Slater JL, Gregson L, Denning DW, Warn PA. Pathogenicity of Aspergillus fumigatus mutants assessed in Galleria mellonella matches that in mice. Med Mycol 2011; 49(Suppl 1):S107-13; PMID:20950221; http://dx.doi.org/ 10.3109/13693786.2010.523852 - DOI - PubMed