Porphyromonas gingivalis Virulence in a Drosophila melanogaster Model

Abstract

Porphyromonas gingivalis has been implicated in the etiology of adult periodontitis. In this study, we examined the viability of Drosophila melanogaster as a new model for examining P. gingivalis-host interactions. P. gingivalis (W83) infection of Drosophila resulted in a systemic infection that killed in a dose-dependent manner. Differences in the virulence of several clinically prevalent P. gingivalis strains were observed in the Drosophila killing model, and the results correlated well with studies in mammalian infection models and human epidemiologic studies. P. gingivalis pathobiology in Drosophila did not result from uncontrolled growth of the bacterium in the Drosophila hemolymph (blood) or overt damage to Drosophila tissues. P. gingivalis killing of Drosophila was multifactorial, involving several bacterial factors that are also involved in virulence in mammals. The results from this study suggest that many aspects of P. gingivalis pathogenesis in mammals are conserved in Drosophila, and thus the Drosophila killing model should be useful for characterizing P. gingivalis-host interactions and, potentially, polymicrobe-host interactions.