Transinfection of the olive fruit fly Bactrocera oleae with Wolbachia: towards a symbiont‐based population control strategy |
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| Authors: | A Apostolaki I Livadaras A Saridaki A Chrysargyris C Savakis K Bourtzis |
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| Institution: | 1. Medical School, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece;2. Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Foundation for Research and Technology, Vassilika Vouton, Heraklion, Crete, Greece;3. Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Foundation for Research and Technology, Vassilika Vouton, Heraklion, Crete, Greece;4. Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, University of Ioannina, Agrinio, Greece;5. Biology Department, University of Crete, Vassilika Vouton, Heraklion, Crete, Greece;6. Biomedical Sciences Research Center ‘Alexander Fleming’, Varkiza, Greece |
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| Abstract: | The olive fruit fly Bactrocera oleae is responsible for worldwide economic damage. In this report, we describe the first B. oleae lines transinfected with the Wolbachia strain wCer2, an endosymbiont of the cherry fruit fly Rhagoletis cerasi. Immunostaining followed by confocal microscopy, detects high numbers of Wolbachia in embryos as well as in ovarioles and sperm from individuals of both transinfected lines. wCer2 was uniformly distributed in B. oleae egg chambers and the cortex of preblastoderm embryos. Wolbachia is known to manipulate host reproduction with several strategies, one of which is cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), resulting in embryonic mortality in incompatible crosses. Wolbachia was found to induce complete CI in the novel host, suggesting that symbiont‐based approaches can be used as novel environmentally friendly tools for the control of natural olive fruit fly populations. |
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| Keywords: | Bactrocera oleae Wolbachia cytoplasmic incompatibility incompatible insect technique Tephritidae |
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