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. 2024 Sep 12;18(9):e0011944.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0011944. eCollection 2024 Sep.

Wolbachia and mosquitoes: Exploring transmission modes and coevolutionary dynamics in Shandong Province, China

Affiliations

Wolbachia and mosquitoes: Exploring transmission modes and coevolutionary dynamics in Shandong Province, China

Chuanhui Zang et al. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. .

Abstract

Vector-borne diseases leave a large footprint on global health. Notable culprits include West Nile virus (WNV), St. Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV), and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), all transmitted by Culex mosquitoes. Chemical insecticides have been widely used to reduce the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. Still, mosquitoes are becoming more and more resistant to most chemical insecticides which cause particular harm to the ecology. Wolbachia belongs to the family Ehrlichiaceae in the order Rickettsiales and is a matrilineally inherited endosymbiont present in 60% of insects in nature. Wolbachia is capable of inducing a wide range of reproductive abnormalities in its hosts, such as cytoplasmic incompatibility, and can alter mosquito resistance to pathogen infection. Wolbachia has been proposed as a biological alternative to chemical vector control, and specific research progress and effectiveness have been achieved. Despite the importance of Wolbachia, this strategy has not been tested in Culex pipiens pallens, the most prevalent mosquito species in Shandong Province, China. Little is known about how the mass release of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes may impact the genetic structure of Culex pipiens pallens, and how the symbiotic bacterium Wolbachia interacts with mitochondria during host mosquito transmission. Based on the population genetic structure of Culex pipiens pallens in Shandong Province, this study investigated the infection rate and infection type of Wolbachia in Shandong Province and jointly analysed the evolutionary relationship between the host mosquito and the symbiotic bacterium Wolbachia. Our study showed that Wolbachia naturally infected by Culex pipiens pallens in Shandong Province was less homologous to Wolbachia infected by Aedes albopictus released from mosquito factory in Guangzhou. Our results also show that Culex pipiens pallens is undergoing demographic expansion in Shandong Province. The overall Wolbachia infection rate of Culex pipiens pallens was 92.8%, and a total of 15 WSP haplotypes were detected. We found that the genetic diversity of Wolbachia was low in Culex pipiens pallens from Shandong Province, and the mosquitoes were infected only with type B Wolbachia. Visualizing the relationship between Culex pipiens pallens and Wolbachia using a tanglegram revealed patterns of widespread associations. A specific coevolutionary relationship exists between the host mosquito and Wolbachia. Knowledge of this mosquito-Wolbachia relationship will provide essential scientific information required for Wolbachia-based vector control approaches in Shandong Province and will lead to a better understanding of the diversity and evolution of Wolbachia for its utility as a biocontrol agent.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. The distribution of field-collected Culex pipiens pallens sampled in this study.
Site abbreviations: BZ–Binzhou; DZ–Dezhou; LC–Liaocheng; HZ–Heze; JN–Jining; DY–Dongying; ZB–Zibo; LY–Linyi; YT–Yantai; QD–Qingdao; RZ–Rizhao. The base layer of the map is from the Resource and Environment Science and Data Center (https://www.resdc.cn/).
Fig 2
Fig 2. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree based on surface protein gene sequences for Wolbachia from different hosts.
Sequences extracted from GenBank.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Phylogenetic network of 11 mitochondrial haplotypes of the cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene in Culex pipiens pallens in Shandong Province.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Bayesian estimates of historical asymmetrical migration between populations of Culex pipiens pallens.
The five locality groups are indicated by dotted circles, and arrows indicate the direction of migration. The base layer of the map is from the Resource and Environment Science and Data Center (https://www.resdc.cn/).

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Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.81871685 to MQG), Taishan Scholars Foundation of Shandong Province (No.tsqn202312373 to HML), Ministry of Education industry-university cooperative education project (No.230726153807227 to HML), Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No.ZR2020KH001 to HML). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. No authors received any salary from the funder of this study.

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