登革热的传播模式、蚊媒及防控

在自然界存在两种登革热传播模式:人-伊蚊-人循环,蚊媒是埃及伊蚊与白纹伊蚊。猴-伊蚊-猴循环,蚊媒是白纹伊蚊与白雪伊蚊群。我国学者首先于1975年从无输入性病例的我国西南边疆山林地区的白纹伊蚊体内分离到登革热病毒4型,白纹伊蚊承担两种传播模式的中介。本研究介绍了埃及伊蚊与白纹伊蚊的生态习性与全球及在中国的分布。认为在我国厦门地区迄今为止还未曾发现过埃及伊蚊的存在,也简介了沃尔巴克体新技术防控蚊媒研究的进展。     

沃尔巴克氏体在中国三种稻飞虱中的感染

用PCR方法检测了采集于不同地域稻田的3种稻飞虱共生菌沃尔巴克氏体(Wolbachia)的感染,发现灰飞虱Laodelphax striatellus、褐飞虱Nilaparvata lugens、白背飞虱Sogatella furcifera为沃尔巴克氏体所感染。克隆了编码沃尔巴克氏体外膜蛋白质的wsp基因并进行了序列测定。对wsp的RFLP分析证实了这些飞虱为单一沃尔巴克氏体感染。研究了灰飞虱中沃尔巴克氏体所诱导的胞质不相容性及其在不同地域灰飞虱中的分布。还发现能寄生于上述3种飞虱的稻虱红螯蜂也受同种沃尔巴克氏体感染。沃尔巴克氏体可能通过这种寄生蜂在不同昆虫间横向传播。     

RNAi在抗蚊媒病毒感染中的研究进展

蚊媒病因具有较高的发病率和传播率使其成为全球关注的重要公共卫生问题。蚊虫作为蚊媒病的传播媒介,研究其与蚊媒病毒两者之间的相互作用机制将有助于蚊媒病的防控。蚊虫抵御蚊媒病毒的先天免疫降低和病毒成功逃避蚊虫免疫屏障为病毒在蚊虫体内的持续感染和蚊媒病的暴发流行造成了潜在风险。RNA干扰(RNA interference, RNAi)途径作为蚊虫体内强大的抗病毒防御屏障,通过产生多种小RNA降解病毒RNA,从而达到抑制病毒复制和传播的目的。本文对小干扰RNA (small interfering RNA, si RNA)、微小RNA (micro RNA,mi RNA)、Piwi蛋白相作用RNA (Piwi-interacting RNA, pi RNA)等3种小分子RNA在蚊虫体内发挥抗蚊媒病毒感染的先天免疫机制的相关研究进行了综述,以期为蚊媒病的防控提供理论参考。     

蚊媒传染病的遗传控制和共生控制

蚊虫是疟疾和登革热等多种疾病的传播媒介,媒介控制是阻断虫媒传染病的重要措施。当前对媒介的控制主要依赖于化学杀虫剂,但蚊虫已对杀虫剂产生了普遍抗性,加上疟原虫等耐药性问题的出现和抗疟疫苗的缺乏,急需发展新的方法和策略用于蚊媒传染病的防控。蚊子中肠是疟原虫等病原体在蚊虫体内发育的最大屏障,是阻断疾病传播的理想靶点。基于转基因蚊的遗传控制和转基因共生菌的共生控制是降低媒介效能和阻断疾病传播的两个有前景的新策略。遗传控制是直接以媒介昆虫作为遗传操作对象,通过表达抗病效应分子来阻断疾病的传播;转基因共生菌防治则是以共生微生物作为遗传改造的对象,在宿主体内表达抗病效应分子以达到阻断疾病传播的目的。本文对这些新防治方法的现状及应用进展进行综述,并讨论遗传控制和共生控制在蚊媒传染病防治的实际应用中所面临的问题。     

共生菌Wolbachia在宿主中诱导表达胞质不相容因子的研究进展

沃尔巴克氏体(Wolbachia)作为节肢动物的胞内共生菌,可以引起宿主产生雌性化、孤雌生殖、杀雄和胞质不相容性(cytoplasmic incompatibility, CI) 4种生殖表型。其中CI是最常见的现象,表现为受感染的雄性昆虫与未感染或感染不兼容Wolbachia的雌性昆虫交配时引起胚胎死亡;而雌性感染同种Wolbachia时胚胎能够正常发育。CI是由被称为CI因子(cifA和cifB)的Wolbachia基因对调控的。其中,CifB作为毒剂在雄性中表达诱导产生CI,而CifA作为解毒剂在雌性中表达拯救CI。本文综述了CI因子结构、功能和作用机制的研究,以期为未来利用Wolbachia和CI进行蚊媒疾病和农业虫害的防控奠定基础。     

遗传不育技术在蚊媒疾病防控中的应用

疟疾、登革热等重大传染性蚊媒疾病严重危害人类健康,且目前缺乏有效的药物和疫苗,防治埃及伊蚊、冈比亚按蚊等媒介昆虫是控制和消除这些疾病的有效手段。化学杀虫剂的大规模使用在一定程度上控制了疾病的传播,但其抗药性和环境污染等问题也随之而来。分子生物学的飞速发展为昆虫不育技术(SIT)的更新及害虫防治提供了新的策略,由此发展起来的以释放携带显性致死基因昆虫(RIDL)为代表的一系列遗传不育技术为蚊虫种群防控提供了更加有效的选择。本文概述了遗传技术在蚊虫防控中的应用进展,包括蚊虫遗传防治的历史和策略,阐述了RIDL技术体系的原理,同时介绍了相关遗传控制品系和已经开展的田间释放研究,展示了遗传修饰不育技术在蚊媒疾病防治中的巨大潜力。     

植物病毒病媒介昆虫的传毒特性和机制研究进展

植物病毒病是农作物的“癌症”, 至今缺少有效的防治方法。目前已知80%的植物病毒病依赖于媒介昆虫传播, 而媒介昆虫对植物病毒的传播是一个昆虫、 病毒、 寄主植物互作的过程, 历经获毒、 持毒和传毒等多个阶段, 昆虫体内一系列病毒受体或蛋白参与了这个过程。昆虫传播病毒的方式有口针携带式、 前肠保留式和体内循环式3类, 它们各自对应的持久性为非持久性、 半持久性和持久性, 不同昆虫获取这3类病毒的获毒时间、 在体内存留位置和传毒时间也各不相同。 这个过程受到媒介昆虫的性别及龄期、 寄主植物、 环境条件、 昆虫体内共生菌等多种因素的影响。与之相关的蛋白主要有病毒衣壳蛋白(CP)、 次要衣壳蛋白（CPm）、 GroEL蛋白、 辅助因子(HC)和下颚口针蛋白等。近年来对植物病毒基因组的研究也取得了很大的进展, 对昆虫传毒机制的研究正受到越来越广泛的关注。本文综述了近年来该领域内的相关研究进展, 包括昆虫传播植物病毒的传毒方式、 影响传毒效率的因素、 传毒机制特别是昆虫体内与病毒传播可能相关的受体等。     

生物策略在控制伊蚊传播疾病的应用

RNAi技术作为高效、特异性的阻断技术,已经在低等原核生物、植物、动物、真菌等的研究和农作物病虫害防治、人类蚊媒传染病的控制等方面得到了广泛的应用。近年来全球每年有约一半的人受到蚊媒传播疾病的威胁,蚊媒传病严重危害全世界人类的生命健康,成为巨大的公共卫生问题。其中,伊蚊在传播疾病方面扮演着十分重要的角色,包括目前最重要的流行性病,如登革热、寨卡病毒病、黄热病、流行性乙型脑炎、基孔肯雅病等都是由伊蚊传播的疾病。因此,非常急需一种有效的防控蚊虫的手段来控制疾病的传播。生物防控策略具有环境和生态友好的特征,为近年研究的主流。本研究从近十年来伊蚊生物防控的研究成果,着重综述了生物防控策略的有效性、可行性和经济性,对本领域研究进展和未来的发展方向进行了总结和阐述。     

澳研究发现共生菌可让蚊子寿命减半

澳大利亚科学家1月2日公布一项报告显示,沃尔巴克氏共生菌能让蚊子寿命减半,从而可较为简单经济地减少借蚊虫传播的疟疾、登革热等传染病。沃尔巴克氏体广泛存在于果蝇等节肢动物体内,经宿主母系细胞质遗传。由于它通常能让果蝇寿命减半,研究人员让埃及伊蚊感染上沃尔巴克氏体,置于严格受控的实验室中孵化后代。结果显示,     

媒介昆虫与植物病毒互作研究进展

植物病毒大多借助媒介昆虫进行传播。植物病毒与媒介昆虫的互作关系研究是当今媒介生物学和生态学领域的前沿课题,也是寻找植物病毒有效防控途径的重要基础。本文主要概述了近十年来,包括呼肠孤病毒科Reoviridae、双生病毒科Geminiviridae、纤细病毒属Tenuivirus、番茄斑萎病毒属Tospovirus,、等多个科、属的植物病毒与其特异的媒介昆虫间的互作研究进展,探讨了昆虫传播植物病毒的机制以及昆虫对病毒入侵的响应机制,解析了植物病毒-媒介昆虫的互作关系,提出了未来研究发展的方向。     

我国西尼罗病毒和Tahyna病毒的发现与流行

已发现100余种蚊传虫媒病毒在世界各地流行,其引发的人兽共患病是全世界关注的公共卫生问题。长期以来我国仅发现乙型脑炎和登革热两种蚊传虫媒病毒病,但近年来新发现西尼罗病毒和Tahyna病毒及其感染疾病流行。从我国新疆维吾尔自治区采集的蚊虫标本中分离到西尼罗病毒,大量血清学研究证明当地不仅存在西尼罗病毒感染所致疾病,还发生过西尼罗病毒感染引发的病毒性脑炎流行。目前已从新疆维吾尔自治区、青海省和内蒙古自治区采集的蚊虫标本中分离到Tahyna病毒,并发现其在自然界动物中的循环和导致的人类感染流行。西尼罗病毒和Tahyna病毒及其相关感染性疾病的发现为我国虫媒病毒及虫媒病毒病的预防与控制提出了新的挑战。     

Wolbachia induces density-dependent inhibition to dengue virus in mosquito cells

Wolbachia is a maternal transmitted endosymbiotic bacterium that is estimated to infect up to 65% of insect species. The ability of Wolbachia to both induce viral interference and spread into mosquito vector population makes it possible to develop Wolbachia as a biological control agent for dengue control. While Wolbachia induces resistance to dengue virus in the transinfected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, a similar effect was not observed in Aedes albopictus, which naturally carries Wolbachia infection but still serves as a dengue vector. In order to understand the mechanism of this lack of Wolbachia-mediated viral interference, we used both Ae. albopictus cell line (Aa23) and mosquitoes to characterize the impact of Wolbachia on dengue infection. A serial of sub-lethal doses of antibiotic treatment was used to partially remove Wolbachia in Aa23 cells and generate cell cultures with Wolbachia at different densities. We show that there is a strong negative linear correlation between the genome copy of Wolbachia and dengue virus with a dengue infection completely removed when Wolbacha density reaches a certain level. We then compared Wolbachia density between transinfected Ae. aegypti and naturally infected Ae. albopictus. The results show that Wolbachia density in midgut, fatbody and salivary gland of Ae. albopictus is 80-, 18-, and 24-fold less than that of Ae. aegypti, respectively. We provide evidence that Wolbachia density in somatic tissues of Ae. albopictus is too low to induce resistance to dengue virus. Our results will aid in understanding the mechanism of Wolbachia-mediated pathogen interference and developing novel methods to block disease transmission by mosquitoes carrying native Wolbachia infections.     

Impact of population age structure on Wolbachia transgene driver efficacy: ecologically complex factors and release of genetically modified mosquitoes

Wolbachia symbionts hold theoretical promise as a way to drive transgenes into insect vector populations for disease prevention. For simplicity, current models of Wolbachia dynamics and spread ignore ecologically complex factors such as the age structure of vector populations and overlapping vector generations. We developed a model including these factors to assess their impact on the process of Wolbachia spread into populations of three mosquito species (Anopheles gambiae, Aedes aegypti and Culex pipiens). Depending on the mosquito species, Wolbachia parameters, released mosquito life stage and initial age structure of the target population, the number of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes that we predict would need to be released ranged from less than the threshold calculated by the simple model to a 10-30-fold increase. Transgenic releases into age-structured populations, which is an expectation for wild mosquitoes, will be difficult and depending on the circumstances may not be economically or logistically feasible due to the large number of infected mosquitoes that must be released. Our results support the perspective that understanding ecological factors is critical for designing transgenic vector-borne disease control strategies.     

Interspecific transfer of Wolbachia into the mosquito disease vector Aedes albopictus

Intracellular Wolbachia bacteria are obligate, maternally inherited endosymbionts found frequently in insects and other invertebrates. The evolutionary success of Wolbachia is due in part to an ability to manipulate reproduction. In mosquitoes and many other insects, Wolbachia causes a form of sterility known as cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). Wolbachia-induced CI has attracted interest as a potential agent for affecting medically important disease vectors. However, application of the approach has been restricted by an absence of appropriate, naturally occurring Wolbachia infections. Here, we report the interspecific transfer of Wolbachia infection into a medically important mosquito. Using embryonic microinjection, Wolbachia is transferred from Drosophila simulans into the invasive pest and disease vector: Aedes albopictus (Asian tiger mosquito). The resulting infection is stably maintained and displays a unique pattern of bidirectional CI in crosses with naturally infected mosquitoes. Laboratory population cage experiments examine a strategy in which releases of Wolbachia-infected males are used to suppress mosquito egg hatch. We discuss the results in relation to developing appropriate Wolbachia-infected mosquito strains for population replacement and population suppression strategies.     

Towards the genetic control of insect vectors: An overview

Insects are responsible for the transmission of major infectious diseases. Recent advances in insect genomics and transformation technology provide new strategies for the control of insect borne pathogen transmission and insect pest management. One such strategy is the genetic modification of insects with genes that block pathogen development. Another is to suppress insect populations by releasing either sterile males or males carrying female‐specific dominant lethal genes into the environment. Although significant progress has been made in the laboratory, further research is needed to extend these approaches to the field. These insect control strategies offer several advantages over conventional insecticide‐based strategies. However, the release of genetically modified insects into the environment should proceed with great caution, after ensuring its safety, and acceptance by the target populations.     

Not all GMOs are crop plants: non-plant GMO applications in agriculture

Since tools of modern biotechnology have become available, the most commonly applied and often discussed genetically modified organisms are genetically modified crop plants, although genetic engineering is also being used successfully in organisms other than plants, including bacteria, fungi, insects, and viruses. Many of these organisms, as with crop plants, are being engineered for applications in agriculture, to control plant insect pests or diseases. This paper reviews the genetically modified non-plant organisms that have been the subject of permit approvals for environmental release by the United States Department of Agriculture/Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service since the US began regulating genetically modified organisms. This is an indication of the breadth and progress of research in the area of non-plant genetically modified organisms. This review includes three examples of promising research on non-plant genetically modified organisms for application in agriculture: (1) insects for insect pest control using improved vector systems; (2) fungal pathogens of insects to control insect pests; and (3) virus for use as transient-expression vectors for disease control in plants.     

Can Wolbachia be used to control malaria?

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease caused by Plasmodium parasites transmitted by the infectious bite of Anopheles mosquitoes. Vector control of malaria has predominantly focused on targeting the adult mosquito through insecticides and bed nets. However, current vector control methods are often not sustainable for long periods so alternative methods are needed. A novel biocontrol approach for mosquito-borne diseases has recently been proposed, it uses maternally inherited endosymbiotic Wolbachia bacteria transinfected into mosquitoes in order to interfere with pathogen transmission. Transinfected Wolbachia strains in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the primary vector of dengue fever, directly inhibit pathogen replication, including Plasmodium gallinaceum, and also affect mosquito reproduction to allow Wolbachia to spread through mosquito populations. In addition, transient Wolbachia infections in Anopheles gambiae significantly reduce Plasmodium levels. Here we review the prospects of using a Wolbachia-based approach to reduce human malaria transmission through transinfection of Anopheles mosquitoes.