A Novel Method for Infecting Drosophila Adult Flies with Insect Pathogenic Nematodes

Overview

Journal Virulence

Specialty Microbiology

Date 2012 May 2

PMID 22546901

Citations 17

Authors

Julio Cesar Castillo

Upasana Shokal

Ioannis Eleftherianos

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Drosophila has been established as an excellent genetic and genomic model to investigate host-pathogen interactions and innate immune defense mechanisms. To date, most information on the Drosophila immune response derives from studies that involve bacterial, fungal or viral pathogens. However, immune reactions to insect parasitic nematodes are still not well characterized. The nematodes Heterorhabditis bacteriophora live in symbiosis with the entomopathogenic bacteria Photorhabdus luminescens, and they are able to invade and kill insects. Interestingly, Heterorhabditis nematodes are viable in the absence of Photorhabdus. Techniques for infecting Drosophila larvae with these nematodes have been previously reported. Here, we have developed a method for infecting Drosophila adult flies with Heterorhabditis nematodes carrying (symbiotic worms) or lacking (axenic worms) their associated bacteria. The protocol we present can be readily adapted for studying parasitic strategies of other insect nematodes using Drosophila as the host infection model.

Citing Articles

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A Simple Protocol for Isolating Hemolymph from Single Adult Flies.

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The nematode parasite is pathogenic to larvae without activating their immune response.

Huynh T, OHalloran D, Hawdon J, Eleftherianos I MicroPubl Biol. 2023; 2023.

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larvae are tolerant to oral infection with the bacterial pathogen .

Raval D, Daley L, Eleftherianos I MicroPubl Biol. 2023; 2023.

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