Diversity of Wolbachia infections in mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) from the Republic of Korea

Wolbachia is bacterial endosymbiotic, which is estimated to infect over 40% of insect species. Many Wolbachia can manipulate host reproductive systems. It may lead to male-killing, cytoplasmic incompatibility, parthenogenesis, and feminization of genetic males with large impact on host ecology and evolution in arthropods. For survey of Wolbachia infection in mosquitoes from the ROK, we collected mosquitoes using BG-sentinel trap with dry-ice. A total of 14,578 mosquitoes representing 9 genera and 20 species were collected. Whole genomic DNAs were extracted from mosquitoes and PCR analysis were accomplished using Wolbachia-specific primer sets such as Filamenting temperature sensitive mutant Z (FtsZ) and Wolbachia Surface Protein (WSP) genes. Of 20 mosquito species, eight species were infected with Wolbachia and showed different infection rates. For instance, Aedes albopictus shows the highest infection rate (95%), and followed by Mansonia uniformis (92%), Coquillettidia ochracea (92%), Culex pipiens complex (90%), Armigeres subalbatus (24%), Tripteroides bambusa (18%), Culex inatomi (16%), and Ochleorotatus koreicus (4%). Further, Wolbachia strains in mosquitoes were analyzed with WSP and ftsZ genes to investigate Wolbachia diversity. Phylogenetic analysis showed that six strains were involved in supergroup A and two strains in supergroup B. In this study, we first reported on the Wolbachia and type of Wolbachiainfection of mosquitoes in Korea.

Key words: mosquito, Wolbachia, PCR, vector