Cytoplasmic incompatibility as a means of controlling Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus mosquito in the islands of the south-western Indian Ocean.

ABSTRACT: The use of the bacterium Wolbachia is an attractive alternative method to control vector populations. In mosquitoes, as in members of the Culex pipiens complex, Wolbachia induces a form of embryonic lethality called cytoplasmic incompatibility, a sperm-egg incompatibility occurring when infected males mate either with uninfected females or with females infected with incompatible Wolbachia strain(s). Here we explore the feasibility of the Incompatible Insect Technique (IIT), a species-specific control approach in which field females are sterilized by inundative releases of incompatible males. We show that the Wolbachia wPip(Is) strain, naturally infecting Cx. p. pipiens mosquitoes from Turkey, is a good candidate to control Cx. p. quinquefasciatus populations on four islands of the south-we

SUBMITTER: Atyame CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3243720 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature