AUTHOR=Zhang HengDuan , Gao Jian , Ma Zu , Liu Yuan , Wang Ge , Liu Qing , Du YuTong , Xing Dan , Li ChunXiao , Zhao Teng , Jiang YuTing , Dong YanDe , Guo XiaoXia , Zhao TongYan 

TITLE=Wolbachia infection in field-collected Aedes aegypti in Yunnan Province, southwestern China

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-and-infection-microbiology/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2022.1082809

DOI=10.3389/fcimb.2022.1082809

ISSN=2235-2988

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Background</title><p><italic>Wolbachia</italic> is gram-negative and common intracellular bacteria, which is maternally inherited endosymbionts and could expand their propagation in host populations by means of various manipulations. Recent reports reveal the natural infection of <italic>Wolbachia</italic> in <italic>Aedes Aegypti</italic> in Malaysia, India, Philippines, Thailand and the United States. At present, none of <italic>Wolbachia</italic> natural infection in <italic>Ae. aegypti</italic> has been reported in China.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>A total of 480 <italic>Ae. aegypti</italic> adult mosquitoes were collected from October and November 2018 based on the results of previous investigations and the distribution of <italic>Ae. aegypti</italic> in Yunnan. Each individual sample was processed and screened for the presence of <italic>Wolbachia</italic> by PCR with <italic>wsp</italic> primers. Phylogenetic trees for the <italic>wsp</italic> gene was constructed using the neighbour-joining method with 1,000 bootstrap replicates, and the p-distance distribution model of molecular evolution was applied.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>24 individual adult mosquito samples and 10 sample sites were positive for <italic>Wolbachia</italic> infection. The <italic>Wolbachia</italic> infection rate (IR) of each population ranged from 0 - 41.7%. The infection rate of group A alone was 0%-10%, the infection rate of group B alone was 0%-7.7%, and the infection rate of co-infection with A and B was 0-33.3%.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusions</title><p><italic>Wolbachia</italic> infection in wild <italic>Ae. aegypti</italic> in China is the first report based on PCR amplification of the <italic>Wolbachia wsp</italic> gene. The <italic>Wolbachia</italic> infection is 5%, and the <italic>wAlbA</italic> and <italic>wAlbB</italic> strains were found to be prevalent in the natural population of <italic>Ae. aegypti</italic> in Yunnan Province.</p></sec>