Wolbachia is found in up to 70% of all insect species including the Cairns birdwing butterfly. Wolbachia Wolbachia is a bacterium that lives only within insect cells and is passed from one generation to the next through the insect’s eggs. It is present in up to 70% of all the different species of insects around us including some mosquitoes that bite people but not the major mosquito species involved in the transmission of diseases such as dengue and malaria. For many years now scientists have been studying Wolbachia looking for ways to utilise the bacterium to potentially control the mosquitoes that spread human diseases. Wolbachia pipientis was first observed in the ovaries and testes of the mosquito, Culex pipiens in the 1920’s. Early studies showed that it was not a pathogen of mammals but instead a naturally occurring and harmless symbiotic bacterium of insects. Since those early studies it has since been determined that it is extremely common in insects, with estimates suggesting that 60-70% of all insect species naturally carry different strains of Wolbachia. Considering that there may be 2-5 million different insect species on the planet Wolbachia is a very successful and pervasive insect bacterium. In this section Our Research Dengue Fever Wolbachia Aedes aegypti Brochures How Wolbachia spreads in insect populations The diagram above explains Cytoplasmic Incompatibility and how by releasing a limited number of mosquitoes with Wolbachia to breed with wild type mosquitoes, over a small number of generations, will result in all the mosquitoes having Wolbachia. a) When male mosquitoes with Wolbachia mate with female wild mosquitoes that don’t have Wolbachia those females will have eggs but they won’t hatch. b) When male mosquitoes with Wolbachia mate with females that are already carrying Wolbachia the mating will be normal and the offspring will all have Wolbachia. c) When female mosquitoes with Wolbachia mate with males without Wolbachia all her offspring will have Wolbachia. Read more Many different strains of Wolbachia Eliminate Dengue is currently field-testing two Wolbachia strains - wMel and wMelPop - with other Wolbachia strains in different stages of development. Each strain has a slightly different effect on the mosquito’s fitness and consequently how easily it will establish in the wild mosquito population once it is released. Wolbachia strains also differ in terms of their ability to block dengue virus inside the mosquito. Over time we hope to select strains that have a strong blocking effect on dengue virus in the mosquito and therefore prevent dengue transmission and yet are easily introduced into mosquitoes in the field and thereby provide a low-cost,
Posted on: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 12:16:12 +0000
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