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Discerning the complexity of community interactions using a Drosophila model of polymicrobial infections.

ABSTRACT: A number of human infections are characterized by the presence of more than one bacterial species and are defined as polymicrobial diseases. Methods for the analysis of the complex biological interactions in mixed infections with a large number of microorganisms are limited and do not effectively determine the contribution of each bacterial species to the pathogenesis of the polymicrobial community. We have developed a novel Drosophila melanogaster infection model to study microbe-microbe interactions and polymicrobe-host interactions. Using this infection model, we examined the interaction of 40 oropharyngeal isolates with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We observe three classes of microorganisms, one of which acts synergistically with the principal pathogen, while being avirulent or even beneficial on its own. This synergy involves microbe-microbe interactions that result in the modulation of P. aeruginosa virulence factor gene expression within infected Drosophila. The host innate immune response to these natural-route polymicrobial infections is complex and characterized by additive, suppressive, and synergistic transcriptional activation of antimicrobial peptide genes. The polymicrobial infection model was used to differentiate the bacterial flora in cystic fibrosis (CF) sputum, revealing that a large proportion of the organisms in CF airways has the ability to influence the outcome of an infection when in combination with the principal CF pathogen P. aeruginosa.

SUBMITTER: Sibley CD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2566602 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Discerning the complexity of community interactions using a Drosophila model of polymicrobial infections.

Sibley Christopher D CD Duan Kangmin K Fischer Carrie C Parkins Michael D MD Storey Douglas G DG Rabin Harvey R HR Surette Michael G MG

PLoS pathogens 20081024 10

A number of human infections are characterized by the presence of more than one bacterial species and are defined as polymicrobial diseases. Methods for the analysis of the complex biological interactions in mixed infections with a large number of microorganisms are limited and do not effectively determine the contribution of each bacterial species to the pathogenesis of the polymicrobial community. We have developed a novel Drosophila melanogaster infection model to study microbe-microbe intera ...[more]

PMID: 18949036

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Project description:Drosophila melanogaster has been widely used as a model of human Mendelian disease, but its value in modeling complex disease has received little attention. Fly models of complex disease would enable high-resolution mapping of disease-modifying loci and the identification of novel targets for therapeutic intervention. Here, we describe a fly model of permanent neonatal diabetes mellitus and explore the complexity of this model. The approach involves the transgenic expression of a misfolded mutant of human preproinsulin, hINS(C96Y), which is a cause of permanent neonatal diabetes. When expressed in fly imaginal discs, hINS(C96Y) causes a reduction of adult structures, including the eye, wing, and notum. Eye imaginal discs exhibit defects in both the structure and the arrangement of ommatidia. In the wing, expression of hINS(C96Y) leads to ectopic expression of veins and mechano-sensory organs, indicating disruption of wild-type signaling processes regulating cell fates. These readily measurable "disease" phenotypes are sensitive to temperature, gene dose, and sex. Mutant (but not wild-type) proinsulin expression in the eye imaginal disc induces IRE1-mediated XBP1 alternative splicing, a signal for endoplasmic reticulum stress response activation, and produces global change in gene expression. Mutant hINS transgene tester strains, when crossed to stocks from the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel, produce F1 adults with a continuous range of disease phenotypes and large broad-sense heritability. Surprisingly, the severity of mutant hINS-induced disease in the eye is not correlated with that in the notum in these crosses, nor with eye reduction phenotypes caused by the expression of two dominant eye mutants acting in two different eye development pathways, Drop (Dr) or Lobe (L), when crossed into the same genetic backgrounds. The tissue specificity of genetic variability for mutant hINS-induced disease has, therefore, its own distinct signature. The genetic dominance of disease-specific phenotypic variability in our model of misfolded human proinsulin makes this approach amenable to genome-wide association study in a simple F1 screen of natural variation.

Dataset Information

Discerning the complexity of community interactions using a Drosophila model of polymicrobial infections.

Publications

Discerning the complexity of community interactions using a Drosophila model of polymicrobial infections.

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