Symbiotic Wolbachia in mosquitoes and its role in reducing the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases: updates and prospects

Abstract

Mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, West Nile virus, chikungunya, Zika fever, and filariasis have the greatest health and economic impact. These mosquito-borne diseases are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in tropical and sub-tropical areas. Due to the lack of effective vector containment strategies, the prevalence and severity of these diseases are increasing in endemic regions. Nowadays, mosquito infection by the endosymbiotic Wolbachia represents a promising new bio-control strategy. Wild-infected mosquitoes had been developing cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), phenotypic alterations, and nutrition competition with pathogens. These reduce adult vector lifespan, interfere with reproduction, inhibit other pathogen growth in the vector, and increase insecticide susceptibility of the vector. Wild, uninfected mosquitoes can also establish stable infections through trans-infection and have the advantage of adaptability through pathogen defense, thereby selectively infecting uninfected mosquitoes and spreading to the entire population. This review aimed to evaluate the role of the Wolbachia symbiont with the mosquitoes (Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex) in reducing mosquito-borne diseases. Global databases such as PubMed, Web of Sciences, Scopus, and pro-Quest were accessed to search for potentially relevant articles. We used keywords: Wolbachia, Anopheles, Aedes, Culex, and mosquito were used alone or in combination during the literature search. Data were extracted from 56 articles’ texts, figures, and tables of the included article.

The Perpetual Vector Mosquito Threat and Its Eco-Friendly Nemeses

“…More targeted eco-friendly mosquito control strategies include the classical Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), which utilizes a large-scale release of irradiated adults; the Incompatible Insect Technique (IIT), in which artificially increasing Wolbachia infection levels in adults impose fitness costs; and the Release of Insect carrying a Dominant Lethal gene technique (RIDL), which selects against daughter progeny [ 121 , 122 , 123 , 124 ]. A CRISPR/Cas9 gene drive system has also been proposed for pest and vector insect population control [ 125 ].…”

“…Wolbachia phages harbor incompatibility determinants, including cifA and cifB , that regulate CI such that when male insects that have both cifA and cifB , and, in some systems, just cifB , mate with females lacking cifA , no viable offsprings are produced [ 138 , 139 ]. The IIT approach takes advantage of the fact that male mosquitoes infected with the natural endosymbiont are unable to produce offspring with female mosquitoes devoid of the bacterium or that have cytoplasmic incompatible strains of the bacterium [ 124 , 140 , 141 ]. Although females can lay eggs, the eggs never hatch.…”

Exploring Planetary Health Perspectives of Mosquito-borne Infections in Canada: A Rapid Scoping Review

“…salinarius, and Cq. perturbans harboured Wolbachia (gram-negative non-spore-forming, obligate intracellular parasitic bacteria that frequently infect mosquitoes) in high numbers, with Cx-pipiens/restuans having the highest prevalence (Novakova, et al, 2017;Minwuyelet, et al, 2023). Wolbachia as a microbiome was found making mosquitoes resistant to viruses, particularly WNv to grow.…”

“…Wolbachia as a microbiome was found making mosquitoes resistant to viruses, particularly WNv to grow. Thus, Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes can reduce spreading WNv by reducing competent mosquito populations or the vector's number of mosquitoes and/or pathogen replication (Minwuyelet, et al, 2023;Jiggins, 2016). Wolbachia abundance in mosquito guts negatively correlates with higher (mean) temperature and potentially affects the mosquito's susceptibility to WNv in the subsequent generation of C. pipiens/restuans hosts (Novakova, et al, 2017).…”

Wolbachia infection in natural mosquito populations from Argentina

“…Thus, there is urgency for increasing effective control measures against vectors. Nowadays, Wolbachia infection mosquito represents a promising new bio-control strategy (Minwuyelet et al 2023).…”