Persistent deleterious effects of a deleterious Wolbachia infection

Perran A Ross; Jason K Axford; Ashley G Callahan; Kelly M Richardson; Ary A Hoffmann

Journal article

Persistent deleterious effects of a deleterious Wolbachia infection

Perran A Ross, Jason K Axford, Ashley G Callahan, Kelly M Richardson, Ary A Hoffmann

PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases | Public Library of Science | Published : 2020

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008204

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Abstract

Wolbachia are being used to reduce dengue transmission by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes around the world. To date releases have mostly involved Wolbachia strains with limited fitness effects but strains with larger fitness costs could be used to suppress mosquito populations. However, such infections are expected to evolve towards decreased deleterious effects. Here we investigate potential evolutionary changes in the wMelPop infection transferred from Drosophila melanogaster to Aedes aegypti more than ten years (~120 generations) ago. We show that most deleterious effects of this infection have persisted despite strong selection to ameliorate them. The wMelPop-PGYP infection is difficult to main..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Perran Ross Author

Ary Hoffmann Author

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Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (1132412 and 1118640 to AAH, www.nhmrc.gov.au) and the Australian Research Council (DP190101877 to AAH, www.arc.gov.au).The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.