Abstract
Malassezia is a lipid-dependent genus of yeasts known for being an important part of the skin mycobiota. These yeasts have been associated with the development of skin disorders and cataloged as a causal agent of systemic infections under specific conditions, making them opportunistic pathogens. Little is known about the host–microbe interactions of Malassezia spp., and unraveling this implies the implementation of infection models. In this mini review, we present different models that have been implemented in fungal infections studies with greater attention to Malassezia spp. infections. These models range from in vitro (cell cultures and ex vivo tissue), to in vivo (murine models, rabbits, guinea pigs, insects, nematodes, and amoebas). We additionally highlight the alternative models that reduce the use of mammals as model organisms, which have been gaining importance in the study of fungal host–microbe interactions. This is due to the fact that these systems have been shown to have reliable results, which correlate with those obtained from mammalian models. Examples of alternative models are Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, Tenebrio molitor, and Galleria mellonella. These are invertebrates that have been implemented in the study of Malassezia spp. infections in order to identify differences in virulence between Malassezia species.
Highlights
Malassezia is a lipid-dependent genus of yeasts found as commensals on human and animal skin [1,2]
The results showed that Wild type (WT) flies were resistant to the infection and that Toll-deficient flies inoculated with the highest inoculum concentrations showed a significantly reduced survival as compared to the control
These findings were corroborated with a decrease in fungal burden in WT flies and an absence of yeasts in histological investigations, contrasting to what was observed in the Toll-deficient flies [63]. These results demonstrated the opportunistic character of M. pachydermatis and showed the potential of the use of immune-deficient mutant flies to study the pathogenesis of Malassezia
Summary
Malassezia is a lipid-dependent genus of yeasts found as commensals on human and animal skin [1,2]. Under specific conditions, these yeasts have been associated with skin diseases [3], Crohn’s disease, the exacerbation of colitis [4], Parkinson’s disease [5], pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma [6], and fungemia [7,8,9] (Table 1). The virulence factors of Malassezia are likely to be involved. Malassezia spp. are generally regarded as opportunistic pathogens but how this skin commensal contributes to skin diseases remains a matter of debate. Studying the lifestyle of Malassezia spp. in model organisms is expected to contribute to unraveling this long-standing issue
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