A w AlbB Wolbachia Transinfection Displays Stable Phenotypic Effects across Divergent Aedes aegypti Mosquito Backgrounds

PA Ross; X Gu; KL Robinson; Q Yang; E Cottingham; Y Zhang; HL Yeap; X Xu; NM Endersby-Harshman; AA Hoffmann

Journal article

A w AlbB Wolbachia Transinfection Displays Stable Phenotypic Effects across Divergent Aedes aegypti Mosquito Backgrounds

PA Ross, X Gu, KL Robinson, Q Yang, E Cottingham, Y Zhang, HL Yeap, X Xu, NM Endersby-Harshman, AA Hoffmann

Applied and Environmental Microbiology | AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY | Published : 2021

DOI: 10.1128/AEM.01264-21

Abstract

Aedes mosquitoes harboring intracellular Wolbachia bacteria are being released in arbovirus and mosquito control programs. With releases taking place around the world, understanding the contribution of host variation to Wolbachia phenotype is crucial. We generated a Wolbachia transinfection (wAlbBQ) in Aedes aegypti and performed backcrossing to introduce the infection into Australian or Malaysian nuclear backgrounds. Whole Wolbachia genome sequencing shows that the wAlbBQ transinfection is nearly identical to the reference wAlbB genome, suggesting few changes since the infection was first introduced to A. aegypti over 15 years ago. However, these sequences were distinct from other available..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Perran Ross Author

Xinyue Gu Author

Qiong Yang Author

Ellen Cottingham Author

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Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

A.A.H. was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (1132412 and 1118640 [https://www.nhmrc.gov.au]).P.A.R.was supported by a University of Melbourne early-career research grant. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.