Animal models for host-pathogen interactions.

www.sciencedirect.com Microbial infections are characterized by a continual dramatic interplay between pathogen and host: pathogens exploit an array of host cell functions during infection and their hosts respond with appropriate immune responses. Host–pathogen interactions are complex and dynamic by nature and are generally analyzed with a reductionist approach focusing on one facet of the interaction. This is especially true for infections impacting human health, for which experimental studies at the organism level are difficult, expensive, or ethically questionable. To overcome the limitations associated with using mammalian models of infection, many laboratories have turned to analyzing host–pathogen interactions in laboratory models. Thus, model hosts such as the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, and the zebrafish Danio rerio have been employed for host–pathogen interaction studies because of their short generation times, affordability, and amenability to forward and/or reverse genetic analysis. In addition, host–pathogen studies on these model hosts benefit from genetic and genomic tools and resources that have been generated over the years by the relatively large scientific communities using each of these models. Because the study of host–pathogen interactions using model hosts is perceived as a relatively new and cutting edge field, it has attracted scientists with formal training in other fields such as development or evolutionary biology, producing a stimulating exchange of ideas.