Wolbachia pipientis

As many as 25-70% of insect species are suspected to be carriers of some species of Wolbachia bacteria, which can affect their reproductive capabilities in one of four ways.

One way is that in some species, Wolbachia infection is able to induce parthenogenesis, a form of asexual reproduction in which an embryo can form from an unfertilized egg. Certain species within the Trichogramma parasitoid wasp genus have evolved to reproduce without males thanks to Wolbachia. Males are rare in the genus, possibly due to them being killed by the same bacteria.

Wolbachia infections in some fly and mosquito species have been linked to resistance to RNA viruses such as norovirus, West Nile virus, and Drosophila C virus.

Fertile Relationship

The mechanisms underlying the benefit the insect- and worm-infecting bacterial species Wolbachia confers on its host's fertility revealed. Insight for honing approaches that target Wolbachia in pest biological control

Read the published research paper here

Image from work by Shelbi L. Russell and colleagues

Department of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in PLOS Biology, October 2023

ZORIONAK COVID!

The World Mosquito Project cultivates and releases mosquitoes infected with a bacterium called Wolbachia which is passed down to future generations. The bacterium appears to block mosquitos from transmitting arboviruses (dengue, chikungunya & yellow fever) & Zika. – WTF Fun Facts

Okay so Wolbachia is a bacteria that is very common in insects

Aedes mosquitoes spread diseases globally including the well-known dengue fever and Zika virus, which makes them a problem for human populations.

Aedes aegypti are a species that doesn't have Wolbachia and are one of the big disease culprits - so scientists have introduced Wolbachia into the populations via innoculation of eggs. Males that are infected and mate with wild (and therefore uninfected) females produce eggs that don't hatch. This means you can rear infected males and release them as a form of control in mosquito dense areas, because the males mate with uninfected females and unhatched eggs decrease the overall population!

Infecting mosquitoes with bacteria led to dramatic drops in dengue in trials