How useful are invertebrate infection models for studying bacterial Assignment

How useful are invertebrate infection models for studying bacterial pathogenisis and therapy - Assignment Example The infection cycle involves the disease causing agent managing entry into the host either through adhesion or penetration, assimilation of nutrients to generate more copies of itself and subvert the defence systems of the host and eventually exit from the host to start another cycle in a different target. Numerous in vitro and in vivo infection models have been developed over the years to identify virulence factors and understand its regulation. The fact that some of the host-pathogen interactions have been evolutionarily conserved has led to the establishment of model systems to understand pathogenesis from both the hosts’ and pathogens’ side. Much remains to be understood about the host-pathogen interaction at the molecular level and model systems that are most informative of this could be systems in which the pathogen and host are both amenable to genetic analysis (Pradel and Ewbank, 2004). A number of non-vertebrate model organisms have been developed in order to study host-pathogen interactions which facilitates not only a better understanding of virulence mechanisms but also permit direct genetic techniques to study host defences while reducing cost and ethical constraints associated with mammalian model systems. Non-vertebrate models have also been more popular in bacterial pathogenesis studies because of the following factors: To understand the complexity of virulence-defence interactions a number of pathogen-host systems are required. Simple easy to handle organism such as D. discoideum, C. elegans, D. melanogaster and G. mellonella helps in identifying virulence factors and understanding their functions. Comparative studies in host models also contribute to the identification of novel elements involved in host susceptibility and resistance. Some of these elements conserved over species may also contribute to our understanding of pathogenesis in vertebrates. The genetic tractability of the simple host models will also make possible refined