Biomaterial Database

Wolbachia pipientis: an expanding bag of tricks to explore for disease control. 2010

Peter E Cook, and Elizabeth A McGraw

School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Wolbachia pipientis are maternally inherited, endosymbiotic bacteria that are widespread among insects. Two recent studies have demonstrated that Wolbachia inhibits the ability of medically significant pathogens, including filarial nematodes, dengue virus and Plasmodium to form infections in the mosquito vector, Aedes aegypti. We highlight the added value of these traits for Wolbachia based biocontrol strategies and evaluate the evidence for the idea that the insect immune response is responsible for the pathogen inhibition.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007107	Immune System	The body's defense mechanism against foreign organisms or substances and deviant native cells. It includes the humoral immune response and the cell-mediated response and consists of a complex of interrelated cellular, molecular, and genetic components.	Immune Systems,System, Immune,Systems, Immune
D007303	Insect Vectors	Insects that transmit infective organisms from one host to another or from an inanimate reservoir to an animate host.	Insect Vector,Vector, Insect,Vectors, Insect
D010572	Pest Control, Biological	Use of naturally-occuring or genetically-engineered organisms to reduce or eliminate populations of pests.	Biological Pest Control,Biologic Pest Control,Pest Control, Biologic,Biologic Pest Controls,Biological Pest Controls,Pest Controls, Biologic,Pest Controls, Biological
D010964	Plasmodium gallinaceum	A protozoan parasite that causes avian malaria (MALARIA, AVIAN), primarily in chickens, and is transmitted by the Aedes mosquito.	Plasmodium gallinaceums,gallinaceums, Plasmodium
D002646	Chikungunya virus	A species of ALPHAVIRUS causing an acute dengue-like fever.
D003716	Dengue Virus	A species of the genus FLAVIVIRUS which causes an acute febrile and sometimes hemorrhagic disease in man. Dengue is mosquito-borne and four serotypes are known.	Breakbone Fever Virus,Breakbone Fever Viruses,Dengue Viruses,Fever Virus, Breakbone,Fever Viruses, Breakbone,Virus, Breakbone Fever,Virus, Dengue,Viruses, Breakbone Fever,Viruses, Dengue
D000330	Aedes	A genus of mosquitoes (CULICIDAE) frequently found in tropical and subtropical regions. YELLOW FEVER and DENGUE are two of the diseases that can be transmitted by species of this genus.	Aede
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D020577	Wolbachia	A genus of bacteria which comprises a heterogenous group of gram-negative small rods and coccoid forms associated with arthropods. (From Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, vol 1, 1984)