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The wMel Wolbachia strain blocks dengue and invades caged Aedes aegypti populations

Nature volume 476, pages 450–453 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Dengue fever is the most important mosquito-borne viral disease of humans with more than 50 million cases estimated annually in more than 100 countries1,2. Disturbingly, the geographic range of dengue is currently expanding and the severity of outbreaks is increasing2,3,4. Control options for dengue are very limited and currently focus on reducing population abundance of the major mosquito vector, Aedes aegypti5,6. These strategies are failing to reduce dengue incidence in tropical communities and there is an urgent need for effective alternatives. It has been proposed that endosymbiotic bacterial Wolbachia infections of insects might be used in novel strategies for dengue control7,8,9. For example, the wMelPop-CLA Wolbachia strain reduces the lifespan of adult A. aegypti mosquitoes in stably transinfected lines8. This life-shortening phenotype was predicted to reduce the potential for dengue transmission. The recent discovery that several Wolbachia infections, including wMelPop-CLA, can also directly influence the susceptibility of insects to infection with a range of insect and human pathogens9,10,11 has markedly changed the potential for Wolbachia infections to control human diseases. Here we describe the successful transinfection of A. aegypti with the avirulent wMel strain of Wolbachia, which induces the reproductive phenotype cytoplasmic incompatibility with minimal apparent fitness costs and high maternal transmission, providing optimal phenotypic effects for invasion. Under semi-field conditions, the wMel strain increased from an initial starting frequency of 0.65 to near fixation within a few generations, invading A. aegypti populations at an accelerated rate relative to trials with the wMelPop-CLA strain. We also show that wMel and wMelPop-CLA strains block transmission of dengue serotype 2 (DENV-2) in A. aegypti, forming the basis of a practical approach to dengue suppression12.

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Figure 1: Tissue distribution of the w Mel strain in transinfected A. aegypti female mosquitoes.
Figure 2: Predicted and observed invasion dynamics under semi-field conditions.
Figure 3: Dengue infection levels in mosquitoes.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to N. Kenny for technical support and to members of the O’Neill laboratory for critical reading of the manuscript. We thank R. Silcock, M. Janes, S. Long, C. Paton and C. Omodei for their assistance in the semi-field cages and laboratory at James Cook University. We are very grateful for all of our volunteers who helped to blood-feed the mosquitoes in the cages and to P. Young for providing the anti-dengue antibodies. This research was supported by a grant from the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health through the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia, the RAPIDD program of the NIH, the Climate and Health Cluster of the CSIRO Flagship collaboration Fund and fellowships from the Australian Research Council.

Author information

Author notes

  1. L. A. Moreira & C. J. McMeniman

    Present address: Present addresses: Centro de Pesquisas René Rachou-Fiocruz, Belo Horizonte, MG 30190, Brasil (L.A.M.); Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, Campus Box 63, New York, New York10065, USA (C.J.M.).,

  2. T. Walker and P. H. Johnson: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Queensland, Australia

    T. Walker, L. A. Moreira, I. Iturbe-Ormaetxe, F. D. Frentiu, C. J. McMeniman, Y. S. Leong, Y. Dong & S. L. O’Neill

  2. Department of Genetics, Bio21 Institute, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia,

    J. Axford, P. Kriesner & A. A. Hoffmann

  3. School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitative Sciences, James Cook University, Cairns, 4870, Queensland, Australia

    P. H. Johnson & S. A. Ritchie

  4. Biomathematics Graduate Program and Department of Mathematics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, 27695, North Carolina, USA

    A. L. Lloyd

  5. Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, 20892, Maryland, USA

    A. L. Lloyd

  6. School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia ,

    S. L. O’Neill

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Contributions

T.W. performed transinfection and initial phenotypic characterization of the infection. P.H.J., Y.S.L., Y.D. and S.A.R. performed cage invasion experiments and fecundity assays on outbred mosquito lines. T.W., L.A.M. and F.D.F. carried out vector competence assays. I.I.-O. performed FISH. C.J.M. established cell lines for transinfection. J.A. and P.K. performed cytoplasmic incompatibility and lifespan assays on outbred mosquito lines. A.L.L. undertook modelling studies. T.W. and A.A.H. performed data analysis. T.W., P.H.J., S.L.O. and A.A.H. wrote the paper. S.L.O., A.A.H. and S.A.R. provided oversight of the design and direction of the work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. L. O’Neill.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Walker, T., Johnson, P., Moreira, L. et al. The wMel Wolbachia strain blocks dengue and invades caged Aedes aegypti populations. Nature 476, 450–453 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10355

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