Wolbachia Endobacteria in Natural Populations of Culex pipiens of Iran and its Phylogenetic Congruence

• Main Authors: Mohsen Karami, Seyed Hassan Moosa-Kazemi, Mohammad Ali Oshaghi, Hasan Vatandoost, Mohammad Mehdi Sedaghat, Ramazan Rajabnia, Mostafa Hosseini, Naseh Maleki-Ravasan, Yousef Yahyapour, Elaheh Ferdosi-Shahandashti
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tehran University of Medical Sciences 2016-06-01
• Series: Journal of Arthropod-Borne Diseases
• Subjects: Culex pipiens; Wolbachia; cytoplasmic incompatibility; nested-PCR; Iran
• Online Access: https://jad.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jad/article/view/305
• ISSN: 1735-7179; 2322-2271

Background: Wolbachia are common intracellular bacteria that infect different groups of arthropods including mos­quitoes. These bacteria modify host biology and may induce feminization, parthenogenesis, male killing and cyto­plasmic incompatibility (CI). Recently Wolbachia is being nominated as a bio-agent and paratransgenic candidate to control mosquito borne diseases. Methods: Here we report the results of a survey for presence, frequency, and phylogenetic congruence of these en­dosymbiont bacteria in Culex pipiens populations in Northern, Central, and Southern parts of Iran using nested-PCR amplification of wsp gene. Results: Wolbachia DNA were found in 227 (87.3%) out of 260 wild-caught mosquitoes. The rate of infection in adult females ranged from 61.5% to 100%, while in males were from 80% to 100%. The Blast search and phyloge­netic analysis of the wsp gene sequence revealed that the Wolbachia strain from Iranian Cx. pipiens was identical to the Wolbachia strains of supergroup B previously reported in members of the Cx. pipiens complex. They had also identical sequence homology with the Wolbachia strains from a group of distinct arthropods including lepidopteran, wasps, flies, damselfly, thrips, and mites from remote geographical areas of the world. Conclusion: It is suggested that Wolbachia strains horizontally transfer between unrelated host organisms over evo­lutionary time. Also results of this study indicates that Wolbachia infections were highly prevalent infecting all Cx. pipiens populations throughout the country, however further study needs to define Wolbachia inter-population repro­ductive incompatibility pattern and its usefulness as a bio-agent control measure.