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Updated: Jan 25, 2026

Use of the Invertebrate Galleria mellonella as an Infection Model to Study the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex
Published on: June 30, 2019
[The greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella to study host-pathogen interactions]
Hanna Bismuth1, Laurent Aussel1, Benjamin Ezraty1
1Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Laboratoire de Chimie Bactérienne, UMR 7283, Institut de Microbiologie de la Méditerranée, 31, chemin Joseph Aiguier, 13009 Marseille, France.
Abstract:
The massive use of antibiotics in health and agriculture has led to the emergence of pathogenic microorganisms resistant to frequently used treatments. In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) published its first ever list of antibiotic-resistant "priority pathogens", a catalogue of twelve families of bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health. In this context, a new model for the study of host-pathogen interactions is becoming increasingly popular : the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella. This butterfly larvae, sometimes considered as a new "laboratory rat", has many practical advantages and is an important host in the study of some steps in the pathogenicity of infectious agents and the identification of new treatments. This review presents this alternative model and describes its possible applications.
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