Abstract
Nonmammalian infection models have been exploited to understand the various aspects of host-pathogen interactions and also provided innovative research platforms for identification of virulence factors, screening for antimicrobial hits, and evaluation of antimicroial efficacy. Here we describe a relatively straightforward protocol to assess the antibacterial efficacy of bacteriophages (phages) toward the opportunistic human pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, based on the systemic infection model using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Since phages, unlike antibacterial chemicals, can be easily and sensitively enumerated by simple assays, it is also possible to address the pharmacokinetic properties of administered phages even in this small-scale infection model.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Shirasu-Hiza MM, Schneider DS (2007) Confronting physiology: how do infected flies die? Cell Microbiol 12:2775–2783
Lemaitre B, Hoffmann JA (2007) The host defense of Drosophila melanogaster. Annu Rev Immunol 25:697–743
Hoffmann JA, Reichhart JM (2002) Drosophila innate immunity: an evolutionary perspective. Nat Immunol 2:121–126
D’Argenio DA, Gallagher LA, Berg CA, Manoil C (2001) Drosophila as a model host for Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection. J Bacteriol 183:1466–1471
Lau GW, Goumnerov BC, Walendziewicz CL, Hewitson J, Xiao W, Mahajan-Miklos S, Tompkins RG, Perkins LA, Rahme LG (2003) The Drosophila melanogaster Toll pathway participates in resistance to infection by the gram-negative human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Infect Immun 71:4059–4066
Lee J-S, Heo Y-J, Lee JK, Cho Y-H (2005) KatA, the major catalase, is critical for osmoprotection and virulence in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14. Infect Immun 73:4399–4403
Kim S-H, Park S-Y, Heo Y-J, Cho Y-H (2008) Drosophila melanogaster-based screening for multihost virulence factors of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14 and identification of a virulence-attenuating factor, HudA. Infect Immun 76:4152–4162
Apidianakis Y, Rahme LG (2009) Drosophila melanogaster as a model host for studying Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection. Nat Protoc 9:1285–1294
Heo Y-J, Lee Y-R, Jung H-H, Lee J, Ko G, Cho Y-H (2009) Antibacterial efficacy of phages against Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in mice and Drosophila melanogaster. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 53:2469–2474
Chung I-Y, Sim N, Cho Y-H (2012) Antibacterial efficacy of temperate phage-mediated inhibition of bacterial group motilities. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 56:5612–5617
Bae H-W (2014) Antibacterial efficacy and host spectrum of a Pseudomonas aeruginosa RNA phage. Ph.D Thesis, Korea: CHA University
Lee, Y-J, Jang, H-J, Chung, I-Y, and Cho, Y-H (2018) Drosophila melanogaster as a polymicrobial infection model for Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. J Microbiol 56:534–541.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the members of the Cho Lab for their technical assistance and helpful comments. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant (NRF-2017R1A2B3005239).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Jang, HJ., Bae, HW., Cho, YH. (2019). Exploitation of Drosophila Infection Models to Evaluate Antibacterial Efficacy of Phages. In: Clokie, M., Kropinski, A., Lavigne, R. (eds) Bacteriophages. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1898. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8940-9_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8940-9_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-8939-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-8940-9
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols