Distribution of Wolbaichia strains in Stegomyia albopicta, Vector of
dengue and chikungunya in Kerala, India
Abstract
Wolbachia are a group of intracellular bacteria known to be prevalent
among arthropods. Wolbachia infection cause declines of host
populations, and also gives rise to host resistance to a wide range of
pathogens. Over the past few decades, Wolbachia is used as a biological
tool to control mosquito vectors. The study was aimed to identify
Wolbachia strains in field collected St. albopicta from different
breeding sites in Kerala. A total of 105 Samples were collected from 3
different areas with different breeding sites, areca nut planation in
Kasaragod (North Kerala), rubber and pineapple plantation in Kottayam
(Central Kerala) and tyres and containers in Thiruvananthapuram (South
Kerala). The positive samples showing clear intensity were selected from
general as well as strain specific samples for sequencing. The samples
prior to sending for sequencing was extracted and purified using gel
extraction kit and lyophilized. The sequences were aligned using
ClustalW software. Then further phylogenetic analysis were made using
MEGA 5 software. The positive samples were found to have 95% A(wAlbA)
and B(wAlbB) super infection with 5% and 3% single infection of wAlbA
and wAlbB strains respectively.