Immune Activation by Life-Shortening Wolbachia and Reduced Filarial Competence in Mosquitoes
Zakaria Kambris,
Peter E. Cook,
Hoang K. Phuc,
Steven P. Sinkins*
Wolbachia strain
wMelPop reduces the longevity of its
Drosophila melanogaster host and, when introduced into the mosquito
Aedes aegypti, halves its life span. We show that
wMelPop induces
up-regulation of the mosquito’s innate immune system and
that its presence inhibits the development of filarial nematodes
in the mosquito. These data suggest that
wMelPop could be used
in the global effort to eliminate lymphatic filariasis and possibly
for the control of other mosquito-borne parasites where immune
preactivation inhibits their development. The cost of constitutive
immune up-regulation may contribute to the life-shortening phenotype.
Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research and Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: steven.sinkins{at}zoo.ox.ac.uk
