Vol. 5, Issue 2, Part A (2018)

Author(s): Nalini Mishra, Nidhi Krishna Shrivastava, Ajay Nayak and Himmat Singh

Abstract: Malaria, Dengue, Japanese encephalitis Chikungunya, lymphatic filariasis etc. are among the common vector borne diseases distributed across the world. Mosquitoes are main cause of transmission of these diseases. These diseases have such a huge impact on mortalities and economic burden that most of the countries where these diseases are prevailing have National Vector control programs like insecticide spray but methods like this only have a short-term effectiveness as on a long run they lead to the development of resistance in the insects thus worsening the situation. We were waiting for environmentally safe way to overcome this situation and to our rescue, came an obligate maternally inherited endosymbiont of several insects, Wolbachia with the way to manipulate reproduction by causing cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). Now the problem was of infecting vectors with this symbiont. Here, in this review we will discuss various aspects of Wolbachia and its role in manipulating reproduction and thus its role in mosquito’s population suppression strategies and limitations of using Wolbachia. Particularly inspiring about this story is how ecologists and evolutionary biologists ended up being the ones to figure out a way to eliminate viral infections.