Prevalence of Wolbachia Endosymbiont among Field Collected Aedes albopictus (Skuse) and Phylogeny in South Andaman, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India

Endosymbiotic bacteria under the genus Wolbachia have been envisaged as a potential candidate for delivery of pathogen blocking genes into wild populations of arthropod vectors, based on its interactions in vector mosquitoes. The prevalence of Wolbachia endosymbiont in natural populations of the dengue and chikungunya vector Aedes albopictus was determined by the polymerase chain reaction method ( wsp ). In the present study a large number of wild Ae . Albopictus specimens were screened for the presence of Wolbachia . A total of 1441 Ae . albopictus mosquitoes were collected from 29 sampling locations, spanning heterogeneous landscapes covering three tehsils of South Andaman district during a 3 month period and were screened for the presence of Wolbachia , 16S rDNA polymerase chain reaction method. GIS based distribution of Wolbachia was generated. The overall prevalence of Wolbachia super group A and Wolbachia super group B observed was 100% (n=472) of Ae . albopictus . This is the first report on the Wolbachia prevalence in a field population of Ae . albopictus . The wsp gene sequence of the Wolbachia strain generated from Ae . albopictus was BLAST analyzed and found 99% sequence homologous with Wolbachia sp. of Ae . albopictus isolated from different geographical regions. Phylogenetic analysis based on wsp gene fragments showed that the present Wolbachia isolate was closely related with Wolbachia from different geographical locations of India, USA, China, France, United Kingdom and Taiwan.