Non-mammalian animal models to study infectious disease: worms or fly fishing?
A major challenge in studying human infectious diseases is to understand in detail the molecular bases, including both pathogen and host-related factors, which contribute to disease development. Non-mammalian models have proven to be of great value for our understanding of disease and have shown conservation in fundamental virulence mechanisms for the infection of evolutionary divergent hosts. In this review we describe recent advances with three major non-mammalian models used for analysis of infectious disease in humans; the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and the zebrafish Danio rerio.
O'Callaghan
David
D
INSERM Espri 26, UFR Médecine, Université de Montpellier 1, EA4204, UFR Médecine, Nimes, France. david.ocallaghan@univ-montp1.fr
Vergunst
Annette
A
D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000382:microbiology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000382:microbiology*