“…Because of this, the laboratory mouse has been the experimental model of choice to study pathogenesis of infection, including innate and acquired host defense mechanisms. Inbred mouse strains differ significantly in their degree of susceptibility to infection with various human bacterial (eg, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, 15,16 Salmonella enterica, 17 Streptococcus pyogenes, 18 Streptococcus pneumoniae 19 ), fungal (eg, Histoplasma capsulatum, 20 Aspergillus fumigatus 21 ), protozoan (eg, Leishmania major, 22 Plasmodium berghei, 23 Plasmodium chabaudi 24 ), helminthic (eg, Schistosoma mansoni 25,26 ) as well as viral (eg, respiratory syncytial virus 27,28 ) pathogens. This attribute has been exploited to identify novel loci influencing resistance/susceptibility to infection and to provide new insight on host mechanisms involved in response to those pathogens that ultimately affect the onset, progression, and outcome of the infection.…”