Abstract
Mosquito-borne viruses are known to cause disease in humans and livestock and are often difficult to control due to the lack of specific antivirals and vaccines. The Wolbachia endosymbiont has been widely studied for its ability to restrict positive-strand RNA virus infection in mosquitoes, although little is known about the precise antiviral mechanism. In recent years, a variety of insect-specific viruses have been discovered in mosquitoes and an interaction with mosquito-borne viruses has been reported for some of them; however, nothing is known about the effect of Wolbachia on insect-specific virus infection in mosquitoes. Here, we show that transinfection of the Drosophila-derived wMelPop Wolbachia strain into Aedes aegypti-derived cells resulted in inhibition and even clearance of the persistent cell-fusing agent flavivirus infection in these cells. This broadens the antiviral activity of Wolbachia from acute infections to persistent infections and from arboviruses to mosquito-specific viruses. In contrast, no effect on the Phasi Charoen-like bunyavirus persistent infection in these cells was observed, suggesting a difference in Wolbachia inhibition between positive- and negative-strand RNA viruses.
Highlights
Arboviruses are comprised of human and animal pathogens that are transmitted via blood-feeding arthropod vectors, including mosquitoes
It has been reported that Aag2 cells produce transcripts and proteins from another insect-specific viruses (ISVs), PCLV (Maringer et al, 2015)
Wolbachia endosymbionts have been studied for their ability to restrict RNA virus infection in Drosophila and A. aegypti mosquitoes, as well as their derived cell lines (Kean et al, 2015; Rainey et al, 2014)
Summary
Arboviruses are comprised of human and animal pathogens that are transmitted via blood-feeding arthropod vectors, including mosquitoes. Transinfection of Drosophila-derived Wolbachia into A. aegypti (which is not known to naturally harbour these endosymbionts) or its derived cell lines resulted in resistance to the important mosquito-borne dengue (DENV) and chikungunya viruses (Moreira et al, 2009; Walker et al, 2011). This has resulted in successful field trials of A. aegypti transinfected with Wolbachia, proving its ability to reduce DENV transmission in natural settings (Frentiu et al, 2014). This unique feature is called cytoplasmic incapability (McMeniman et al, 2009) and gives a reproductive advantage to infected female mosquitoes, resulting in the spread of Wolbachia through the mosquito population (Sinkins, 2004)
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