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Wolbachia strain wAlbB confers both fitness costs and benefit on Anopheles stephensi.

ABSTRACT: Wolbachia is a maternally transmitted intracellular bacterium that is estimated to infect up to 65% of insect species, but it is not naturally present in Anopheles malaria vectors. Wolbachia-based strategies for malaria vector control can be developed either through population replacement to reduce vectorial capacity or through population suppression to reduce the mosquito population. We have previously generated An. stephensi mosquitoes carrying a stable wAlbB Wolbachia infection and have demonstrated their ability to invade wild-type laboratory populations and confer resistance to Plasmodium on these populations.We assessed wAlbB-associated fitness by comparing the female fecundity, immature development and survivorship, body size, male mating competiveness, and adult longevity of the infected An. stephensi to that of wild-type mosquitoes.We found that wAlbB reduced female fecundity and caused a minor decrease in male mating competiveness. We also observed that wAlbB increased the life span of both male and female mosquitoes when they were maintained solely on sugar meals; however, there was no impact on the life span of blood-fed females. In addition, wAlbB did not influence either immature development and survivorship or adult body sizes.These results provide significant support for developing Wolbachia-based strategies for malaria vector control.

SUBMITTER: Joshi D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4223616 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Wolbachia strain wAlbB confers both fitness costs and benefit on Anopheles stephensi.

Joshi Deepak D McFadden Michael J MJ Bevins David D Zhang Fengrui F Xi Zhiyong Z

Parasites & vectors 20140721

<h4>Background</h4>Wolbachia is a maternally transmitted intracellular bacterium that is estimated to infect up to 65% of insect species, but it is not naturally present in Anopheles malaria vectors. Wolbachia-based strategies for malaria vector control can be developed either through population replacement to reduce vectorial capacity or through population suppression to reduce the mosquito population. We have previously generated An. stephensi mosquitoes carrying a stable wAlbB Wolbachia infec ...[more]

PMID: 25041943

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Project description:BackgroundAbout two out of three Ethiopians are at risk of malaria, a disease caused by the parasites Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax. Anopheles stephensi, an invasive vector typically found in South Asia and the Middle East, was recently found to be distributed across eastern and central Ethiopia and is capable of transmitting both P. falciparum and P. vivax. The detection of this vector in the Horn of Africa (HOA) coupled with widespread insecticide resistance requires that new methods of vector control be investigated in order to control the spread of malaria. Wolbachia, a naturally occurring endosymbiotic bacterium of mosquitoes, has been identified as a potential vector control tool that can be explored for the control of malaria transmission. Wolbachia could be used to control the mosquito population through suppression or potentially decrease malaria transmission through population replacement. However, the presence of Wolbachia in wild An. stephensi in eastern Ethiopia is unknown. This study aimed to identify the presence and diversity of Wolbachia in An. stephensi across eastern Ethiopia.MethodsDNA was extracted from An. stephensi collected from eastern Ethiopia in 2018 and screened for Wolbachia using a 16S targeted PCR assay, as well as multilocus strain typing (MLST) PCR assays. Haplotype and phylogenetic analysis of the sequenced 16S amplicons were conducted to compare with Wolbachia from countries across Africa and Asia.ResultsTwenty out of the 184 mosquitoes screened were positive for Wolbachia, with multiple haplotypes detected. In addition, phylogenetic analysis revealed two superclades, representing Wolbachia supergroups A and B (bootstrap values of 81 and 72, respectively) with no significant grouping of geographic location or species. A subclade with a bootstrap value of 89 separates the Ethiopian haplotype 2 from other sequences in that superclade.ConclusionsThese findings provide the first evidence of natural Wolbachia populations in wild An. stephensi in the HOA. They also identify the need for further research to confirm the endosymbiotic relationship between Wolbachia and An. stephensi and to investigate its utility for malaria control in the HOA.

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Wolbachia strain wAlbB confers both fitness costs and benefit on Anopheles stephensi.

Publications

Wolbachia strain wAlbB confers both fitness costs and benefit on Anopheles stephensi.

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