Mitochondrial DNA variants help monitor the dynamics of Wolbachia invasion into host populations

27Citations
Citations of this article
100Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

Wolbachia is the most widespread endosymbiotic bacterium of insects and other arthropods that can rapidly invade host populations. Deliberate releases of Wolbachia into natural populations of the dengue fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, are used as a novel biocontrol strategy for dengue suppression. Invasion of Wolbachia through the host population relies on factors such as high fidelity of the endosymbiont transmission and limited immigration of uninfected individuals, but these factors can be difficult to measure. One way of acquiring relevant information is to consider mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation alongside Wolbachia in field-caught mosquitoes. Here we used diagnostic mtDNA markers to differentiate infection-associated mtDNA haplotypes from those of the uninfected mosquitoes at release sites. Unique haplotypes associated with Wolbachia were found at locations outside Australia. We also performed mathematical and qualitative analyses including modelling the expected dynamics of the Wolbachia and mtDNA variants during and after a release. Our analyses identified key features in haplotype frequency patterns to infer the presence of imperfect maternal transmission of Wolbachia, presence of immigration and possibly incomplete cytoplasmic incompatibility. We demonstrate that ongoing screening of the mtDNA variants should provide information on maternal leakage and immigration, particularly in releases outside Australia. As we demonstrate in a case study, our models to track the Wolbachia dynamics can be successfully applied to temporal studies in natural populations or Wolbachia release programs, as long as there is co-occurring mtDNA variation that differentiates infected and uninfected populations.

References Powered by Scopus

Ultrafast and memory-efficient alignment of short DNA sequences to the human genome

16918Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Geneious Basic: An integrated and extendable desktop software platform for the organization and analysis of sequence data

15600Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

TCS: A computer program to estimate gene genealogies

8467Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

Symbiont-mediated cytoplasmic incompatibility: What have we learned in 50 years?

104Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

DNA barcoding mosquitoes: Advice for potential prospectors

83Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Mapping the virome in wild-caught Aedes aegypti from Cairns and Bangkok

72Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Yeap, H. L., Rašić, G., Endersby-Harshman, N. M., Lee, S. F., Arguni, E., Le Nguyen, H., & Hoffmann, A. A. (2016). Mitochondrial DNA variants help monitor the dynamics of Wolbachia invasion into host populations. Heredity, 116(3), 265–276. https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.2015.97

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 41

60%

Researcher 23

34%

Professor / Associate Prof. 3

4%

Lecturer / Post doc 1

1%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Agricultural and Biological Sciences 48

70%

Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Bi... 13

19%

Engineering 4

6%

Medicine and Dentistry 4

6%

Article Metrics

Tooltip
Social Media
Shares, Likes & Comments: 1

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free