Baldini Francesco, Segata Nicola, Pompon Julien, Marcenac Perrine, Shaw W Robert, Dabiré Roch K, Diabaté Abdoulaye, Levashina Elena A, Catteruccia Flaminia
1] University of Perugia, Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Scienze Biochimiche, 05100 Terni, Italy [2] Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA [3] [4].
1] University of Trento, Centre for Integrative Biology, 38123 Trento, Italy [2].
Nat Commun. 2014 Jun 6;5:3985. doi: 10.1038/ncomms4985.
Wolbachia are maternally transmitted intracellular bacteria that invade insect populations by manipulating their reproduction and immunity and thus limiting the spread of numerous human pathogens. Experimental Wolbachia infections can reduce Plasmodium numbers in Anopheles mosquitoes in the laboratory, however, natural Wolbachia infections in field anophelines have never been reported. Here we show evidence of Wolbachia infections in Anopheles gambiae in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene identified Wolbachia sequences in both female and male germlines across two seasons, and determined that these sequences are vertically transmitted from mother to offspring. Whole-genome sequencing of positive samples suggests that the genetic material identified in An. gambiae belongs to a novel Wolbachia strain, related to but distinct from strains infecting other arthropods. The evidence of Wolbachia infections in natural Anopheles populations promotes further investigations on the possible use of natural Wolbachia-Anopheles associations to limit malaria transmission.
沃尔巴克氏体是通过操纵昆虫繁殖和免疫来侵入昆虫种群从而限制众多人类病原体传播的母系传播的细胞内细菌。在实验室中，实验性沃尔巴克氏体感染可减少按蚊体内疟原虫数量，然而，野外按蚊的自然沃尔巴克氏体感染从未有过报道。在此，我们展示了西非布基纳法索冈比亚按蚊感染沃尔巴克氏体的证据。对16S rRNA基因进行测序，在两个季节的雌雄生殖系中均鉴定出沃尔巴克氏体序列，并确定这些序列是从母亲垂直传递给后代的。阳性样本的全基因组测序表明，在冈比亚按蚊中鉴定出的遗传物质属于一种新型沃尔巴克氏体菌株，与感染其他节肢动物的菌株相关但不同。自然按蚊种群中沃尔巴克氏体感染的证据推动了对利用自然沃尔巴克氏体 - 按蚊组合来限制疟疾传播可能性的进一步研究。
