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Science 2 January 2009:
Vol. 323. no. 5910, pp. 141 - 144
DOI: 10.1126/science.1165326
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Reports

Stable Introduction of a Life-Shortening Wolbachia Infection into the Mosquito Aedes aegypti

Conor J. McMeniman,1 Roxanna V. Lane,1 Bodil N. Cass,1 Amy W.C. Fong,1 Manpreet Sidhu,1 Yu-Feng Wang,1,2 Scott L. O'Neill1*

Most pathogens require a relatively long period of development in their mosquito vector before they can be transmitted to a new human host; hence, only older insects are of epidemiological importance. The successful transfer of a life-shortening strain of the inherited bacterial symbiont, Wolbachia, into the major mosquito vector of dengue, Aedes aegypti, halved adult life span under laboratory conditions. The association is stable, and the Wolbachia strain is maternally inherited at high frequency. It is capable of inducing complete cytoplasmic incompatibility, which should facilitate its invasion into natural field populations and its persistence over time. Our data suggest that targeting mosquito age with inherited Wolbachia infections may be a viable strategy to reduce the transmission of pathogens such as dengue viruses.

1 School of Integrative Biology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia.
2 College of Life Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: scott.oneill{at}uq.edu.au

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