Abstract:
Wolbachia bacteria are capable of inducing a range of reproductive abnormalities
in their hosts including cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) thus resulting in a failure of
karyogamy by delaying nuclear envelope breakdown and mitosis. This results in
Wolbachia invasion of uninfected populations because infected females are able to
produce offspring successfully with both infected and uninfected males, whereas
uninfected females are unable to produce offspring with infected males. For this
reason Wolbachia attracts interest for use as a mechanism for spreading diseaseblocking
transgenes through mosquito populations. Aedes aegypti is the most
important vector of human viral diseases because it is naturally uninfected with
Wolbachia which makes it a good vector model for studying the possibility of using
Wolbachia as a gene driver into vector populations. This work is the first report on the
successful transfer of Wolbachia into mosquito vectors. It shows that Wolbachia
strains from double infected Aedes albopictus can be introduced into naturally
uninfected Ae. aegypti and uninfected Ae. albopictus to form maternally inherited
transmission cycles within both transinfected mosquito species. Moreover, the study
shows that CI could be induced by transinfected Ae. aegypti. Furthermore, CI
expression in transinfected Ae. aegypti is not affected by multiple copulations. Fitness
comparisons indicate no significant differences between transinfected and uninfected
mosquitoes. In addition, it was found that levels of CI expression corresponded to
Wolbachia densities, which were probably influenced by host factors. There was an
interaction between Wolbachia cell division and embryonation of Ae. albopictus and
therefore overgrowth of Wolbachia populations did not occur. The successful transfer
of Wolbachia into Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus is a break-through in the application
of Wolbachia for manipulating natural vector populations genetically.