A Preliminary Survey for Wolbachia and Bacteriophage WO Infections in Indian Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae)

Maternally inherited Wolbachia endosymbiotic bacteria are known to induce various kinds of reproductive alterations in their arthropod hosts. It has been proposed that this bacterium can be used as a tool for gene drive system in mosquitoes and also for the reduction of population size and modulating population age structure in order to reduce disease transmission. In the present study, we carried out a survey to determine the prevalence of Wolbachia and its phage WO infection in Indian mosquitoes and classified Wolbachia infection into groups A and B based on extensive polymerase chain reaction assay using Wolbachia specific wsp and orf7 gene primers. Out of 20 fieldcaught mosquito species, eight species have shown to be infected. Singly infected with Wolbachia A was found in two species and B group found in four species, while double infection with AB group were found in two species. All the screened mosquito species with positive Wolbachia infection were also infected with phage WO. The knowledge of variation in Wolbachia and phage WO infection rates and inferred susceptibility to infection among different mosquito genera has fundamental implications for designing and successful application of Wolbachia based vector-borne disease control strategies.