Drosophila melanogaster as a Model for Studying Aspergillus fumigatus

Abstract

Drosophila melanogaster is a useful model organism that offers essential insights into developmental and cellular processes shared with humans, which has been adapted for large scale analysis of medically important microbes and to test the toxicity of heavy metals, industrial solvents and other poisonous substances. We here give a brief review of the use of the Drosophila model in medical mycology, discuss the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by the opportunistic human pathogen, Aspergillus fumigatus, and give a brief summary of what is known about the toxicity of some common fungal VOCs. Further, we discuss the use of VOC detection as an indirect indicator of fungal growth, including for early diagnosis of aspergillosis. Finally, we hypothesize that D. melanogaster has promise for investigating the role of VOCs synthesized by A. fumigatus as possible virulence factors.

Keywords: Aspergillus fumigatus; Drosophila melanogaster; Volatile organic compounds.

Fig. 1. Development of mature third instar Drosophila larvae over 15 days of continuous exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of Aspergillus fumigatus (strain 1607) that was previously grown at 25℃ or 37℃. A, Percent of living larvae; B, Percent of pupa; C, Percent of living adults. The number of larvae, pupa, and adults was counted daily for 15 days, and 15 third instar larvae were exposed to A. fumigatus VOCs in each trial. The experiment was conducted in triplicate (n = 180). Significant difference between control and experimental, ^**p < 0.005.