Biocontrol Potential of Symbiotic Bacterium Wolbachia against Mosquito-Borne Diseases

Mosquitoes, witnessed by the large number of species and their wide distribution throughout the world, transmit some of the most fatal infectious diseases, such as malaria, dengue, filariasis, and yellow fever, and are a dramatic health hazard to people living in the endemic regions of the world. Though there are different approaches to control them, many of the diseases are increasing in prevalence and severity, and options to control them are limited. Wolbachia pipientis , a symbiotic bacterium, has emerged as a recent addition to the armory of weapons against mosquitoes. Researchers have found that Wolbachia can invade and sustain themselves in mosquito populations, reduce the adult life span, induce reproductive distortions in their hosts, interfere with pathogen replication, and also direct fitness benefits to their hosts by affecting nutrition and development and providing resistance to the pathogens. During the last decades, the symbiont’s role has been well documented in the life cycle and evolution of insect species and this has led to proposing that they might effectively be used as tool for pest control and therefore vector-borne disease control. Wolbachia is probably the most well-known and effective insect symbiont, particularly due to its aptness to manipulate insect reproduction and to interfere with most of the major human pathogens, and hence stipulate new avenues for microbial control of vector-borne diseases.