Leggewie M, Krumkamp R, Badusche M, Heitmann A, Jansen S, Schmidt-Chanasit J, Tannich E, Becker S C
Molecular Entomology Group, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany.
Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany.
Med Vet Entomol. 2018 Mar;32(1):115-120. doi: 10.1111/mve.12270. Epub 2017 Sep 14.
Wolbachia (Rickettsiales: Anaplasmataceae) infects a wide range of arthropods, including several mosquito species. The bacterium is known to induce a plethora of phenotypes in its host, examples being the reproductive phenotype cytoplasmic incompatibility or resistance against infection with arboviruses. The latter is especially relevant when assessing the vector competence of mosquito species for emerging arboviruses. Thus, knowledge of Wolbachia infection status is important for the assessment of vector competence. To facilitate Wolbachia screening in mosquito populations, a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay was developed to enable high-throughput analysis of mosquito samples. Using this assay, the Wolbachia infection status of the two most common Culex mosquito species in Germany, Culex pipiens biotype pipiens Linnaeus (Diptera: Culicidae) and Culex torrentium Martini (Diptera: Culicidae), was assessed. About 93% of all tested C. pipiens biotype pipiens individuals were positive for Wolbachia, whereas none of the C. torrentium samples was found to be infected. Furthermore, other applications of the qPCR assay were explored by assessing a potential link between the levels of Wolbachia and West Nile virus (WNV) infections in German C. pipiens biotype pipiens mosquitoes. No relationship was found between the two variables, indicating that a Wolbachia-induced antiviral phenotype in this mosquito population is not exclusively attributable to the general level of bacterial infection.
沃尔巴克氏体（立克次氏体目：无形体科）感染包括几种蚊子在内的多种节肢动物。已知这种细菌会在其宿主中引发大量表型，例如生殖表型细胞质不亲和或对虫媒病毒感染的抗性。在评估蚊子对新兴虫媒病毒的媒介能力时，后者尤其重要。因此，了解沃尔巴克氏体的感染状况对于评估媒介能力很重要。为便于在蚊子种群中进行沃尔巴克氏体筛查，开发了一种定量聚合酶链反应（qPCR）检测方法，以实现对蚊子样本的高通量分析。利用该检测方法，评估了德国两种最常见的库蚊，即尖音库蚊致倦亚种（双翅目：蚊科）和环跗库蚊（双翅目：蚊科）的沃尔巴克氏体感染状况。所有检测的尖音库蚊致倦亚种个体中约93%对沃尔巴克氏体呈阳性，而未发现任何环跗库蚊样本被感染。此外，通过评估德国尖音库蚊致倦亚种蚊子中沃尔巴克氏体水平与西尼罗河病毒（WNV）感染之间的潜在联系，探索了qPCR检测方法的其他应用。未发现这两个变量之间存在关系，这表明该蚊子种群中沃尔巴克氏体诱导的抗病毒表型并非完全归因于细菌感染的总体水平。
