A Review on Wolbachia- a Viable Alternative to Control Aedes-Born Arboviral Diseases

The endemic geographic ranges of mosquitoes are expanding due to various anthropogenic activities including rapid international travel and trade, urbanization, deforestation, and global warming. Hence, Aedes-borne arboviral diseases like dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, or Zika infections would cause severe future outbreaks in non-endemic regions of the world. This threat to global public health highlights an urgent need for the development of efficient and effective mosquito control strategies. To date, a large number of mosquito vector-control strategies have been developed. Each of them has its strengths and weaknesses but the use of intracellular, endosymbiotic reproductive parasitic bacteria named Wolbachia pipientis is a promising tool for controlling arboviral disease transmissions. It naturally infects many species of arthropods and induces resistance to their respective pathogens. Cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), the most common Wolbachia-induced phenomenon, causes embryonic death by making male and female host gametes incompatible, reducing mosquito populations. This review will analyse the Wolbachia-based mosquito control strategies as a potential alternative to other several physical, chemical, biological, and genetic strategies for controlling mosquito populations.