The impact of temperature and Wolbachia infection on vector competence of potential dengue vectors Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in the transmission of dengue virus serotype 1 in southern Taiwan

Background: we evaluated the impact of temperature and wolbachia infection on vector competence of the local aedes aegypti and ae. albopictus populations of southern taiwan in the laboratory. results: after oral infection with dengue serotype 1 virus (denv-1),female mosquitoes were incubated at temperatures of 10,16,22,28 and 34 °c. subsequently,salivary gland,head,and thorax-abdomen samples were analyzed for their virus titer at 0,5,10,15,20,25 and 30 days post-infection (dpi) by real-time rt-pcr. the results showed that ae. aegypti survived significantly longer and that dengue viral genome levels in the thorax-abdomen (103.25 ± 0.53-104.09 ± 0.71 pfu equivalents/ml) and salivary gland samples (102.67 ± 0.33-103.89 ± 0.58 pfu equivalents/ml) were significantly higher at high temperature (28-34 °c). the survival of ae. albopictus was significantly better at 16 or 28 °c,but the virus titers from thorax-abdomen (100.70-102.39 ± 1.31 pfu equivalents/ml) and salivary gland samples (100.12 ± 0.05-101.51 ± 0.31 pfu equivalents/ml) were significantly higher at 22-28 °c. within viable temperature ranges,the viruses were detectable after 10 dpi in salivary glands and head tissues in ae. aegypti and after 5-10 dpi in ae. albopictus. vector competence was measured in ae. albopictus with and without wolbachia at 28 °c. wolbachia-infected mosquitoes survived significantly better and carried lower virus titers than wolbachia-free mosquitoes. wolbachia coinfections (92.8-97.2%) with walba and walbb strains were commonly found in a wild population of ae. albopictus. conclusions: in southern taiwan,ae. aegypti is the main vector of dengue and ae. albopictus has a non-significant role in the transmission of dengue virus due to the high prevalence of wolbachia infection in the local mosquito population of southern taiwan. © 2017 the author(s).