Table 2.
Comparative characteristics of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and the greater wax moth Galleria mellonella heterologous hosts in the study of host-fungal interactions
| Characteristic | Drosophila melanogaster | Galleria mellonella |
| Genetic tractability | + | − |
| Sequenced genome | Completed | − |
| Insect mutant strain availability | + | − |
| Gene microarrays | + | + |
| RNA interference libraries | + | − |
| Availability of phagocytic cell lines | + | + |
| Potential for harvesting of phagocytes for ex vivo studies | − | + |
| Adaptive immunity | − | − |
| Chemokine/cytokine production | − | − |
| Need for simple laboratory resources | ± | + |
| Precision in fungal inoculum delivery with injection | ± | + |
| Need for genetic crossing | + | − |
| Overall cost | Low | Low |
| Correlation of virulence factors with mammalian models | + | + |
| Potential for large-scale screening studies of fungal genomes | + | + |
| Survival at mammalian physiologic temperature (37°C) | - | + |
| Suitable for orally absorbed antifungal compound testing studies | + | + |
| Suitable for parenteral antifungal compound testing studies | ± | + |
| Precision in parenteral delivery of drugs | − | + |
| Potential for pharmacokinetic studies | − | − |
| Potential for pharmacodynamic studies | − | + |
+ denotes the presence and − denotes the absence of the corresponding characteristic.