This protocol describes how to generate and harvest antibody-free L. amazonensis amastigotes, and how to infect adult Drosophila melanogaster with these parasites. This model recapitulates key aspects of the interactions between Leishmania amastigotes and animal phagocytes.
Keywords: Amastigote; Axenic amastigote; Drosophila melanogaster; Hemocytes; Leishmania; Phagocytosis; Plasmatocytes; RNAi screen.