First report of <i>Wolbachia</i> from field populations of <i>Culex</i> mosquitoes in south-western Nigeria

Abstract

Recent reports on finding Wolbachia-strain infections in field mosquito species in some West African countries and the potential for developing these as disease vector biocontrol tools have prompted a search for Wolbachia in mosquitoes within the study area. Using a completely randomised design, mosquito traps were set at different locations in a rural and an urbanised community. One hundred and eighty (180) mosquitoes were trapped and pooled on the basis of genus, sex and site of collection, because there have been no earlier reports of Wolbachia isolated from Nigeria. Twenty pools, made up of not more than ten mosquitoes per pool, were homogenised and analysed for Wolbachia-specific DNA. Mosquitoes were trapped within Ede (urbanised community) and Akoda (rural community). Genomic DNA was extracted from trapped mosquito samples and used as a template in a PCR reaction. The Wolbachia sp. specific 16S rRNA gene was amplified, sequence analysis of PCR products was performed and a chromatogram of the sequence was subjected to Basic Local Alignment Search Tool analysis to identify the Wolbachia sp. This sequence was subsequently submitted to GenBank with accession number MK127541. The first evidence of the presence of the endosymbiont, Wolbachia in field-caught mosquitoes is hereby documented. The homology of this strain of Wolbachia bears similarities to those reported recently from other parts of West Africa and forms a single clade with a Wolbachia sp. from Mali, with a strong bootstrap support of 99%. This finding of a Wolbachia strain in mosquitoes at Ede could form the basis for more searches for diverse strains of Wolbachia in Nigeria.

Keywords: 16S rRNA gene, Akoda, Ede, endosymbiont, gene sequence, homology, obligate bacteria, PCR amplification