RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Novel <em>Wolbachia</em> strains in Anopheles malaria vectors from Sub-Saharan Africa
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 338434
DO 10.1101/338434
A1 Claire L Jeffries
A1 Georgiy Golovko
A1 Mojca Kristan
A1 James Orsborne
A1 Kirstin Spence
A1 Eliot Hurn
A1 Janvier Bandibabone
A1 Luciano M Tantely
A1 Fara N Raharimalala
A1 Kalil Keita
A1 Denka Camara
A1 Yaya Barry
A1 Francis Wat’senga
A1 Emile Z Manzambi
A1 Yaw A Afrane
A1 Abdul R Mohammed
A1 Tarekegn A. Abeku
A1 Shivanand Hegde
A1 Kamil Khanipov
A1 Maria Pimenova
A1 Yuriy Fofanov
A1 Sébastien Boyer
A1 Grant L Hughes
A1 Thomas Walker
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/06/07/338434.abstract
AB Anopheles (An.) mosquitoes contain bacteria that can influence Plasmodium parasites. Wolbachia, a common insect endosymbiont, has historically been considered absent from Anopheles but has recently been found in An. gambiae populations. Here, we assessed a range of Anopheles species from five malaria-endemic countries for Wolbachia and Plasmodium infection. Strikingly, we found Wolbachia infections in An. coluzzii, An. gambiae s.s., An. moucheti and An. species ‘A’, markedly increasing the number of Anopheles species known to be naturally infected by this endosymbiont. Molecular analysis suggests the presence of phylogenetically diverse novel strains, while qPCR and 16S rRNA sequencing indicates that Wolbachia is the dominant member of the microbiota in An. moucheti and An. species ‘A’. We found no evidence of Wolbachia/Asaia co-infections, and neither of these two endosymbionts had any significant effect on malaria prevalence. We discuss the importance of novel Wolbachia strains in Anopheles species and potential implications for disease control.