Fine Literature: Non-vertebrate Models of Pathogenesis

by Elio
 

C. albicans outgrowing from dead C. ele­gans. Source.

To our list of review articles that we find exceptionally in­teresting, we add one by Mylonakis, Casadevall, and Au­subel on invertebrates as model systems for the study of fungal pathogenesis. There is something especially ap­pealing about using insects, nematodes, slime molds, and protozoa to study interactions that have traditionally focused on vertebrate hosts. No wonder this is fascinat­ing: so many of the pathogenic mechanisms, for exam­ple, virulence factors, are similar or the same across vast taxonomic landscapes. Surely, this says something about the evolution of such mechanisms.