Elkabti Asmaa B, Issi Luca, Rao Reeta P
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609, USA.
J Fungi (Basel). 2018 Nov 7;4(4):123. doi: 10.3390/jof4040123.
has several advantages as an experimental host for the study of infectious diseases. Worms are easily maintained and propagated on bacterial lawns. The worms can be frozen for long term storage and still maintain viability years later. Their short generation time and large brood size of thousands of worms grown on a single petri dish, makes it relatively easy to maintain at a low cost. The typical wild type adult worm grows to approximately 1.5 mm in length and are transparent, allowing for the identification of several internal organs using an affordable dissecting microscope. A large collection of loss of function mutant strains are readily available from the genetic stock center, making targeted genetic studies in the nematode possible. Here we describe ways in which this facile model host has been used to study , an opportunistic fungal pathogen that poses a serious public health threat.
作为研究传染病的实验宿主有几个优点。线虫易于在细菌菌苔上维持和繁殖。线虫可以冷冻长期保存，多年后仍能保持活力。它们的世代时间短，在单个培养皿中能繁殖出数千条线虫的大繁殖量，使得以低成本相对容易地维持培养。典型的野生型成年线虫长到约1.5毫米长且是透明的，使用价格合理的解剖显微镜就能识别几个内部器官。从遗传种质中心很容易获得大量功能缺失突变株系，使得对线虫进行靶向基因研究成为可能。在这里，我们描述了这个简易的模型宿主已被用于研究一种对公共卫生构成严重威胁的机会性真菌病原体的方式。
