Genomic and microscopic evidence of stable high density and maternally inherited<i>Wolbachia</i>infections in<i>Anopheles</i>mosquitoes

Walker, Thomas

doi:10.1101/2020.10.29.357400

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Such a balance undoubtedly would present a hurdle in Wolbachia ’s invasion of these insect hosts, one that may result in silencing the toxic cifB gene through mutation. This hypothesis is supported by the discovery of cifB nonsense mutations through sequencing from w AnM and w AnD strains recently discovered in some Anopheles species 30 as well as by the low prevalence 18,21–23 and lack of observed CI in An. gambiae field populations 23 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 79%

Wolbachia cifBinduces cytoplasmic incompatibility in the malaria mosquito

Adams

Abernathy

Willett

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Wolbachia infections are a fascinating example of reproductive parasitism with strong potential to combat vector-borne diseases, due to their combined ability to spread in insect populations and block pathogen replication. Though the Wolbachia factors mediating the notable reproductive manipulation cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) have now been identified as prophage WO genes cifA and cifB, the relative role of these genes is still intensely debated, with different models claiming that CI requires either both factors or cifB alone. Here we investigated whether cifA and cifB are sufficient to induce conditional sterility in the major malaria vector Anopheles gambiae, a species that appears to have limited susceptibility to invasion by Wolbachia. We report that CI can be fully recapitulated in these mosquitoes, and that cifB is sufficient to cause this reproductive manipulation. cifB-induced sterility is fully rescued by high levels of cifA expression in females. Surprisingly, however, when cifA is highly expressed in males alongside cifB, the CI phenotype is attenuated. cifB strongly impairs fertility also when expressed in the female germline, again mitigated by cifA. These data support a system whereby cifB and cifA must be fine-tuned to exercise CI and rescue, respectively, possibly explaining the limited success of Wolbachia at invading Anopheles. Our findings pave the way towards facilitating Wolbachia infections in anopheline vectors, for use in malaria control strategies.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 79%

Wolbachia cifBinduces cytoplasmic incompatibility in the malaria mosquito

Adams

Abernathy

Willett

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…gambiae s.s. is unique and appears at very low density [31]. Therefore, further experiments are needed to confirm these strains are genuine endosymbionts in their hosts such as microscopy and genome sequencing [33].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…moucheti and An. species A, respectively, are higher density infections that dominate the mosquito microbiome [26,33]. Interestingly, the presence of Wolbachia strains in Anopheles was inversely correlated to other bacterial species such as Asaia that are stably associated with several species [34][35][36][37].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evidence for natural hybridization and novel Wolbachia strain superinfections in the Anopheles gambiae complex from Guinea

Jeffries

Cansado-Utrilla

Béavogui³

et al. 2021

R. Soc. open sci.

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Wolbachia , a widespread bacterium which can influence mosquito-borne pathogen transmission, has recently been detected within Anopheles ( An .) species that are malaria vectors in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although studies have reported Wolbachia strains in the An. gambiae complex, apparent low density and prevalence rates require confirmation. In this study, wild Anopheles mosquitoes collected from two regions of Guinea were investigated. In contrast with previous studies, RNA was extracted from adult females ( n = 516) to increase the chances for the detection of actively expressed Wolbachia genes, determine Wolbachia prevalence rates and estimate relative strain densities. Molecular confirmation of mosquito species and Wolbachia multilocus sequence typing (MLST) were carried out to analyse phylogenetic relationships of mosquito hosts and newly discovered Wolbachia strains. Strains were detected in An. melas (prevalence rate of 11.6%–16/138) and hybrids between An. melas and An. gambiae sensu stricto (prevalence rate of 40.0%–6/15) from Senguelen in the Maferinyah region. Furthermore, a novel high-density strain, termed w AnsX, was found in an unclassified Anopheles species. The discovery of novel Wolbachia strains (particularly in members, and hybrids, of the An. gambiae complex) provides further candidate strains that could be used for future Wolbachia -based malaria biocontrol strategies.

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“…Higher prevalence rate has been reported from an An. demeilloni [27,55,56], An. moucheti [27,28], An.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low prevalence of naturalWolbachiain major malarial vectorsAnopheles culicifaciess.l., andAnopheles stephensi:a first report

Sankar

Sundari²,

Anand³

2020

Preprint

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Wolbachia is an alpha-proteobacteria present in several arthropods. The present study focussed on the identification of Wolbachia in wild malarial vector mosquitoes. This was achieved by molecular identification of Wolbachia from collected mosquitoes. A total of four hundred and eight seven mosquito samples were collected. Morphometric and molecular analysis revealed that they belong to Anopheles culicifacies s.l., (48.25%) and Anopheles stephensi (51.75%). The presence of Wolbachia was identified using 16S rRNA, wsp and FtsZ genes, where nested PCR of 16S rRNA alone was successful and then sequenced. Only seven mosquitoes (1.4%) were positive for Wolbachia. In silico and restriction digestion of 16S rRNA gene product using RsaI enzyme showed that the identified Wolbachia belongs to supergroup B. The prevalence rate of natural Wolbachia was lesser in native malarial vector An. culicifacies s.l. and An. stephensi was about 1.7% and 1.2%, respectively. This is the first report on the presence of Wolbachia in Anopheles culicifacies s.l. and Anopheles stephensi.

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Genomic and microscopic evidence of stable high density and maternally inheritedWolbachiainfections inAnophelesmosquitoes

Cited by 8 publications

References 64 publications

Wolbachia cifBinduces cytoplasmic incompatibility in the malaria mosquito

Wolbachia cifBinduces cytoplasmic incompatibility in the malaria mosquito

Evidence for natural hybridization and novel Wolbachia strain superinfections in the Anopheles gambiae complex from Guinea

Low prevalence of naturalWolbachiain major malarial vectorsAnopheles culicifaciess.l., andAnopheles stephensi:a first report

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