Immune Activation by Life-Shortening Wolbachia and Reduced Filarial Competence in Mosquitoes
Wolbachia strain wMelPop reduces the longevity of its Drosophila melanogaster host and, when introduced into the mosquito Aedes aegypti, halves its life span. We show that wMelPop induces up-regulation of the mosquito's innate immune system and that its presence inhibits the development of fila...
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Published in | Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 326; no. 5949; pp. 134 - 136 |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Washington, DC
American Association for the Advancement of Science
02.10.2009
The American Association for the Advancement of Science |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Wolbachia strain wMelPop reduces the longevity of its Drosophila melanogaster host and, when introduced into the mosquito Aedes aegypti, halves its life span. We show that wMelPop induces up-regulation of the mosquito's innate immune system and that its presence inhibits the development of filarial nematodes in the mosquito. These data suggest that wMelPop could be used in the global effort to eliminate lymphatic filariasis and possibly for the control of other mosquito-borne parasites where immune preactivation inhibits their development. The cost of constitutive immune up-regulation may contribute to the life-shortening phenotype. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-2 ObjectType-Feature-1 |
ISSN: | 0036-8075 1095-9203 1095-9203 |
DOI: | 10.1126/science.1177531 |