Model worms: knowledge gains and risks associated with the use of model species in parasitological research.

ABSTRACT: Model parasite species, whose entire life cycle can be completed in the laboratory and maintained for multiple generations, have played a fundamental role in our understanding of host–parasite interactions. Yet, keeping parasites in laboratory conditions may expose them to unnatural evolutionary pressures, and using laboratory cultures for research is therefore not without limitations. Using 2 widely-used model helminth species, the cestode Hymenolepis diminuta and the nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus, I illustrate the caution needed when interpreting experimental results on model species. I first review more than 1200 experimental studies published on these species in the past 4 decades, to determine which research areas they have contributed to. This is followed by an exa

SUBMITTER: Poulin R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10941210 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature