Project description:Wolbachia, an endosymbiotic bacterium, is being investigated as a vector control agent in several insect species. Along with the well known classical reproductive parasitism Wolbachia employs against its host to spread within the population, it is emerging that the bacteria can protect the host against pathogens and reduced pathogen transmission. Anopheles mosquitoes, which transmit malaria, have never been found to harbour Wolbachia in nature, and despite numerous transinfection attempts, no stable line has been developed. However recently, two strains of Wolbachia, wAlbB from Aedes albopictus, and wRi from Drosophila simulans were cultured in Anopheles gambiae Sua5B cells. These cell lines provides an amenable system to study Wolbachia-Anopheles interaction in the absence of a stable transinfected line. It has been proposed that the compromised vector competence of Wolbachia infected insects is due to an up regulation of the basal immune state. We therefore completed a genome wide expression profile of Wolbachia infected Anopheles, assessing both wAlbB and wRi infected cells in parallel against uninfected Sua5B cells.
Project description:Whole genome transcription was quantified in adult female and male Anopheles gambiae atdifferent ages; 0 (0-24 h), 10, 20 and 30 days post-eclosion. The objective of the experiment was to identify genes with significant age-dependent transcription.