title: Wolbachia pipientis: an expanding bag of tricks to explore for disease control.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Peter E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: McGraw
mesh_terms: D000330:Aedes / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000821:virology; D000818:Animals; D002646:Chikungunya virus / Q000254:growth & development*; D003716:Dengue Virus / Q000254:growth & development*; D007107:Immune System / Q000276:immunology; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000821:virology; D010572:Pest Control, Biological; D010964:Plasmodium gallinaceum / Q000254:growth & development*; D020577:Wolbachia / Q000276:immunology*