AEM Accepts, published online ahead of print on 6 November 2009

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Appl. Environ. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/AEM.01301-09
Copyright (c) 2009, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Galleria mellonella as model system to study Listeria pathogenesis

Krishnendu Mukherjee, Boran Altincicek, Torsten Hain, Eugen Domann, Andreas Vilcinskas^*, and Trinad Chakraborty^*

Institute of Phytopathology and Applied Zoology, and Institute of Medical Microbiology, Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: Andreas.Vilcinskas{at}agrar.uni-giessen.de. trinad.chakraborty{at}mikrobio.med.uni-giessen.de.

Essential aspects of the innate immune response to microbial infection are conserved between insects and mammals. This has generated interest in using insects as model organisms to study host-microbe interactions. We used the greater wax moth Galleria mellonella, which can be reared at 37°C, as a model host for examining virulence potential of Listeria spp.. Here we report that Galleria is an excellent surrogate model of listerial septic infection, capable of clearly distinguishing between pathogenic and non-pathogenic Listeria and even between virulent and attenuated Listeria monocytogenes strains. Virulence required listerial genes hitherto implicated in the mouse infection model, and was linked to strong antimicrobial activities in both hemolymph and hemocytes of infected larvae. Following Listeria infection, the expression of immune defense genes such as lysozyme, galiomycin, gallerimycin, and IMPI were sequentially induced. Pre-induction of antimicrobial activity by treatment of larvae with LPS significantly improved survival against subsequent L. monocytogenes challenge and strong anti-listerial activity was detected in the hemolymph of LPS pre-treated larvae. We conclude that severity of septic infection of L. monocytogenes is primarily modulated by innate immune responses and suggest the use of Galleria as a relatively simple, non-mammalian model system that can be used to assess the virulence of strains of Listeria spp. isolated from a wide variety of settings from both the clinic and the environment.