Abstract
BackgroundWe evaluated the impact of temperature and Wolbachia infection on vector competence of the local Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus populations of southern Taiwan in the laboratory.ResultsAfter oral infection with dengue serotype 1 virus (DENV-1), female mosquitoes were incubated at temperatures of 10, 16, 22, 28 and 34 °C. Subsequently, salivary gland, head, and thorax-abdomen samples were analyzed for their virus titer at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 days post-infection (dpi) by real-time RT-PCR. The results showed that Ae. aegypti survived significantly longer and that dengue viral genome levels in the thorax-abdomen (103.25 ± 0.53–104.09 ± 0.71 PFU equivalents/ml) and salivary gland samples (102.67 ± 0.33–103.89 ± 0.58 PFU equivalents/ml) were significantly higher at high temperature (28–34 °C). The survival of Ae. albopictus was significantly better at 16 or 28 °C, but the virus titers from thorax-abdomen (100.70–102.39 ± 1.31 PFU equivalents/ml) and salivary gland samples (100.12 ± 0.05–101.51 ± 0.31 PFU equivalents/ml) were significantly higher at 22–28 °C. Within viable temperature ranges, the viruses were detectable after 10 dpi in salivary glands and head tissues in Ae. aegypti and after 5–10 dpi in Ae. albopictus. Vector competence was measured in Ae. albopictus with and without Wolbachia at 28 °C. Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes survived significantly better and carried lower virus titers than Wolbachia-free mosquitoes. Wolbachia coinfections (92.8–97.2%) with wAlbA and wAlbB strains were commonly found in a wild population of Ae. albopictus.ConclusionsIn southern Taiwan, Ae. aegypti is the main vector of dengue and Ae. albopictus has a non-significant role in the transmission of dengue virus due to the high prevalence of Wolbachia infection in the local mosquito population of southern Taiwan.
Highlights
We evaluated the impact of temperature and Wolbachia infection on vector competence of the local Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus populations of southern Taiwan in the laboratory
Virus detection in Ae. aegypti Infection rates of F1 field collected Ae. aegypti mosquitoes after oral infection with dengue virus serotype 1 (DENV-1) were unrelated to incubation temperatures (Fisher’s exact test, P > 0.05) (Table 1)
From the 0 dpi data, all female mosquitoes were 100% infected with no significant difference (P > 0.05) in virus titers (102.70 ± 0.56– 102.86 ± 0.40 plaque forming units (PFU) equivalents/ml) (Fig. 1a)
Summary
We evaluated the impact of temperature and Wolbachia infection on vector competence of the local Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus populations of southern Taiwan in the laboratory. In Taiwan, since 2004, outbreaks have occurred annually with peaks in 2014 and 2015 (15,492 and 43,419 indigenous cases, respectively). These local mosquito-transmitted cases were mainly found in southern Taiwan where Aedes aegypti L. and Ae. albopictus (Skuse) coexist. The former species has limited distributions in southern Taiwan, Taitung City in eastern Taiwan and the Penghu Islands. The latter species is found in islands below the altitudes of 1760 m above sea level [5]
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