Rapid host switching of Wolbachia and even more rapid turnover of their phages and incompatibility-causing loci.

ABSTRACT: About half of all insect species carry maternally inherited Wolbachia alphaproteobacteria, making Wolbachia the most common endosymbionts known in nature. Often Wolbachia spread to high frequencies within populations due to cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), a Wolbachia-induced sperm modification caused by prophage-associated genes (cifs) that kill embryos without Wolbachia. Several Wolbachia variants also block viruses, including wMel from Drosophila melanogaster when transinfected into the mosquito Aedes aegypti. CI enables the establishment and stable maintenance of pathogen-blocking wMel in natural Ae. aegypti populations. These transinfections are reducing dengue disease incidence on multiple continents

SUBMITTER: Shropshire JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10723362 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature