Global warming could limit the spread of dengue fever but could also affect Wolbachia as a biological control agent, according to new research.
Researchers, at the Pennsylvania State University in the US, found that infection with the bacterium Wolbachia, which has recently been used to control viral infections in mosquitoes, also increases the thermal sensitivity of the insects.
Wolbachia have been shown to prevent viruses, including dengue, from replicating inside mosquitoes.
But future climate models point to increasing frequencies of extreme temperature events, making short exposures to high temperatures a threat to the survival of dengue and Wolbachia infected mosquitoes,shesaid.
“At lower temperatures, we know that dengue virus may fail to replicate fast enough to make it through the mosquito body and be transmitted, thereby reducing transmission risk,” said Fhallon Ware-Gilmore, graduate student in the Department of Entomology at Penn State.
“At higher temperatures, while the virus may replicate faster, our work suggests that a corresponding reduction in mosquito thermal tolerance may act as a counterforce on mosquito survival that could help to reduce transmission and potentially human disease incidence in hotter, more climate-variable regions. Similarly, our work suggests that Wolbachia may fail to work as a biocontrol agent in hotter regions given its effect on mosquito survival,” she added. (IANS)
