ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2008
Drosophila melanogaster as a model host to dissect the immunopathogenesis of zygomycosis.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 85 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
85 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 141 citations in OpenAlex.
- Epidemiology and Pathophysiology of COVID-19-Associated Mucormycosis: India Versus the Rest of the World.Mycopathologia · 2021Pooled it
- Risk factors for mortality in patients with mucormycosis.Medical mycology · 2012Trial
- The Deferasirox-AmBisome Therapy for Mucormycosis (DEFEAT Mucor) study: a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial.The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · 2012Trial
- The effects of dietary iron supplementation on bacterial infections inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Transcriptomic and proteomic profiling of pulmonary mucormycosis reveals a failed activation of host immune response.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- The effects of dietary iron supplementation on bacterial infections in Manduca sexta larval hemolymph.PloS one · 2026Article
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- The Unnoticed Threat: Clinical Characteristics, Risk Factors, and Outcome of Mucormycosis in Solid Organ Transplantation.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Mucoricin binding to β-glucan sites on germinating Mucorales spores disrupts neutrophil swarming to promote pathogenicity.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Future Prospects and Challenges in Mucormycosis Research.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Commemorating the Landmark Advances in Our Understanding of Mucormycosis by Dimitrios P. Kontoyiannis.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
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- Functional characterization of two survival factor 1 genes inMicrobiology spectrum · 2024Article
- Pharmacology of Aging:Aging biology · 2024Article
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- The Impact of Dimitrios P. Kontoyiannis on Mucormycosis Research.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Molecular mechanisms that govern infection and antifungal resistance in Mucorales.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2024Review
- Experimental Models to Study the Pathogenesis and Treatment of Mucormycosis.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- AlternativeFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2024Review
- Repression ofMicroorganisms · 2023Article
25 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Zygomycosis is an emerging frequently fatal opportunistic mycosis whose immunopathogenesis is poorly understood. We developed a zygomycosis model by injecting Drosophila melanogaster flies with a standardized amount of fungal spores from clinical Zygomycetes isolates to study virulence and host defense mechanisms. We found that, as opposed to most other fungi, which are nonpathogenic in D. melanogaster (e.g., Aspergillus fumigatus), Zygomycetes rapidly infect and kill wild-type flies. Toll-deficient flies exhibited increased susceptibility to Zygomycetes, whereas constitutive overexpression of the antifungal peptide Drosomycin in transgenic flies partially restored resistance to zygomycosis. D. melanogaster Schneider 2 phagocytic cells displayed decreased phagocytosis and caused less hyphal damage to Zygomycetes compared with that to A. fumigatus. Furthermore, phagocytosis-defective eater mutant flies displayed increased susceptibility to Zygomycetes infection. Classic enhancers of Zygomycetes virulence in humans, such as corticosteroids, increased iron supply, and iron availability through treatment with deferoxamine dramatically increased Zygomycetes pathogenicity in our model. In contrast, iron starvation induced by treatment with the iron chelator deferasirox significantly protected flies infected with Zygomycetes. Whole-genome expression profiling in wild-type flies after infection with Zygomycetes vs. A. fumigatus identified genes selectively down-regulated by Zygomycetes, which act in pathogen recognition, immune defense, stress response, detoxification, steroid metabolism, or tissue repair or have unknown functions. Our results provide insights into the factors that mediate host-pathogen interactions in zygomycosis and establish D. melanogaster as a promising model to study this important mycosis.
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