Refined methodology for quantifying Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence using Galleria mellonella

• DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.01666-24
• Publication Date: 2024-12-12T14:03:22Z
• Authors: Christopher M. R....; Travis J. Kochan; Sophie Nozick; Timothy Ward; Tania Afzal; Issay Niki; Sumitra D. Mitra; Ethan VanGosen; Julia Nelson; Aliki Valdes; David Hynes; William Cheng; Joanne Lee; Prarthana Prashanth; Timothy L. Turner; Nathan B. Pincus; Marc H. Scheetz; Kelly E. R. Bachta; Alan R. Hauser
• Keywords: Galleria mellonella

ABSTRACT Larvae of Galleria mellonella (the greater wax moth) are being increasingly used as a model to study microbial pathogenesis. In this model, bacterial virulence is typically measured by determining the 50% lethal dose (LD 50 ) strain or mutant. The use G. Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogenesis, however, challenging because extreme sensitivity larvae bacterium. For some P. strains, few 1–5 colony-forming units sufficient kill mellonella, which poses challenges for LD values. reason, groups have time-to-death measure virulence, but methodologies not been standardized. We provide detailed protocol using time at died (LT particular inoculum virulence. also describe quality control metric enhancing reproducibility LT This approach provides an accurate and reproducible methodology compare strains. IMPORTANCE significant cause morbidity mortality. invertebrate determine analytical accurately quantify strains in larvae. methodology, has several advantages over approaches, useful resource pathogenicity.