Narjes Moezi; Kourosh Azizi; Reza Sadeghi; Saideh Yousefi; Mozaffar Vahedi; Saeed Shahabi; Azim Paksa
Abstract
Background: Mosquitoes transmit many diseases to humans, including malaria, dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, and Zika. Controlling mosquitoes with endosymbiont bacterium Wolbachia is a new approach in this field. This study aimed to determine the Wolbachia infection of two mosquito species, Aedes caspius ...
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Background: Mosquitoes transmit many diseases to humans, including malaria, dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, and Zika. Controlling mosquitoes with endosymbiont bacterium Wolbachia is a new approach in this field. This study aimed to determine the Wolbachia infection of two mosquito species, Aedes caspius and Culex pipiens, in the city of Shiraz, southern Iran.Methods: Samples of Ae. caspius and Cx. pipiens were collected from four localities in Shiraz City, Fars Province. The samples were identified using the morphological identification keys. Collected samples were screened for Wolbachia infection using a PCR assay targeting the Wolbachia surface protein (wsp) gene.Results: Eight species from four genera were collected in this study; the most caught species was Cx. Pipiens, and the lowest abundant species was An. hyrcanus. From 110 adult Cx. pipiens screened using the wsp primer, 75 (68%) samples were infected with Wolbachia. The Wolbachia sequences in Cx. pipiens were like Wolbachia strains belonging to supergroups B. There was no Wolbachia infection in 204 Ae. caspius investigated samples.Conclusion: Our study revealed the presence of the supergroup B Wolbachia strain in Cx. pipiens samples. The present study did not detect any Wolbachia infection in Ae. caspius; however, it remains plausible to introduce Wolbachia populations into Wolbachia-free populations of this species. Such an introduction holds promise as a viable tool for vector control and mitigating the transmission of arboviral diseases such as West Nile virus and Chikungunya through cytoplasmic incompatibility.
