Spencer Emma K, Miller Craig R, Bull James
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, United States of America.
Institute for Modeling Collaboration and Innovation, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, United States of America.
bioRxiv. 2024 Dec 21:2024.12.18.629232. doi: 10.1101/2024.12.18.629232.
The larval tobacco hornworm, , has been used in a laboratory setting for physiological studies and for pathogen virulence studies. This moth offers a much larger size than the commonly used wax moth (), and it can thus be used for a greater variety of assays, such as repeated sampling of the same individual, growth measurements, and tissue sampling. Yet their occasional use in research has led to a minimally documented set of rearing methods. To facilitate further adoption of this insect model, we expanded on previously reported protocols and developed our own rearing methods, which we report here. Our protocol requires little specialized equipment, with a cost less than $100/month for the feeding and maintenance of a laboratory colony of about five hundred larvae of differing instar phases. The low cost generalized equipment and supplies, and the simplification of the standardized protocols allows for an easy entry point for rearing tobacco hornworm populations. We also describe a few methods that are relevant to the uses of these organisms as infection models.
烟草天蛾幼虫已被用于实验室环境中的生理学研究和病原体毒力研究。这种蛾子比常用的蜡螟体型大得多，因此可用于更多种类的试验，如对同一个体进行重复采样、生长测量和组织采样。然而，它们在研究中的偶尔使用导致了一套记录最少的饲养方法。为了促进这种昆虫模型的进一步应用，我们在先前报道的方案基础上进行了扩展，并开发了自己的饲养方法，在此进行报告。我们的方案所需的专业设备很少，每月喂养和维持一个约有500只不同龄期幼虫的实验室种群的成本不到100美元。低成本的通用设备和用品以及标准化方案的简化，为饲养烟草天蛾种群提供了一个容易的切入点。我们还描述了一些与将这些生物体用作感染模型相关的方法。
