{"id":6615,"date":"2022-07-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/07-07-2022\/wolbachia-bacteria-to-take-on-dengue-zika\/"},"modified":"2022-07-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T00:00:00","slug":"wolbachia-bacteria-to-take-on-dengue-zika","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/07-07-2022\/wolbachia-bacteria-to-take-on-dengue-zika","title":{"rendered":"Wolbachia Bacteria to take on Dengue, Zika"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong><u>In News<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">Wolbachia bacteria will help to an end to dengue, chikungunya and zika\u00a0 by blocking the proliferation of harmful viruses but doesn\u2019t harm the mosquitoes themselves.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong><u>Findings of Vector Control Research Centre (VCRC)\u00a0<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">The scientists have been <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>cross-breeding local Aedes aegypti mosquitoes<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">, which transmit dengue, chikungunya and zika virus, with <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>mosquitoes that carry the Wolbachia bacteria<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"> from Australia\u2019s Monash University.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">In this manner, after six to seven generations, the mosquitoes will have <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>genetic material <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">closest to that of the Indian Aedes aegypti strain while the Wolbachia are inherited from the Australian strains<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">This strategy was successfully adopted in <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>Australia\u2019s Queensland<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"> during a dengue outbreak.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">So far, the research has been <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>limited to the laboratories<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">; once it is approved by the government, a pilot will be done by releasing the Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes in the community.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong><u>What is\u00a0Wolbachia?<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">Wolbachia\u00a0are <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>extremely common bacteria<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"> that occur naturally in 50 per cent of insect species, including some mosquitoes, fruit flies, moths, dragonflies and butterflies.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">Wolbachia\u00a0are <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>safe <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">for humans and the environment.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">Independent risk analyses indicate\u00a0that the release of\u00a0Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes poses <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>negligible risk to humans and the environment<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">Wolbachia\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>live inside insect cells<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"> and are passed from one generation to the next through an insect\u2019s eggs.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">Aedes aegypti\u00a0mosquitoes\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>don\u2019t normally carry\u00a0Wolbachia<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">,\u00a0however\u00a0many other mosquitoes do.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">The Wolbachia is <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>maternally transmitted<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"> from mother to offspring, and gradually spreads across the population.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">The Wolbachia <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>inhibits the multiplication of the dengue virus <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">when present in the mosquitoes.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">The number and frequency of Wolbachia in mosquitoes is determined <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>by molecular tests.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong><u>How Wolbachia\u00a0method works?<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">Aedes aegypti\u00a0mosquitoes carry\u00a0Wolbachia, the <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>bacteria compete\u00a0with viruses<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"> like dengue, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">This makes it <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>harder for viruses to reproduce<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"> inside the mosquitoes. And the mosquitoes are much less likely to spread viruses from person to person.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">This means that when\u00a0Aedes aegypti\u00a0mosquitoes carry natural\u00a0Wolbachia\u00a0bacteria, the transmission of viruses like dengue, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever is <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>reduced.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-left:24px\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong><u>Approaches to use Wolbachia<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">There are two approaches to tackling dengue with\u00a0Wolbachia.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>The first<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"> involves releasing only modified male mosquitoes.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">Since 2015, this strategy has been successfully adopted in Singapore and Guangzhou, China, and in parts of the United States, such as Miami, Texas and California.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">Because eggs produced from unmodified females that mate with modified males do not hatch, the number of mosquitoes in the community is greatly reduced.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">The <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>second approach<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">, used by some cities in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil and Australia, among others, involves releasing modified mosquitoes of both sexes.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">The infected females pass the bacteria to their offspring.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\">\u00a0Over time (several months to years, depending on characteristics of the release site), the modified mosquitoes replace the native population.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"font-family:'Book Antiqua',serif\"><span style=\"color:#000000\"><strong>Source: BS<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News Wolbachia bacteria will help to an end to dengue, chikungunya and zika\u00a0 by blocking the proliferation of harmful viruses but doesn\u2019t harm the mosquitoes themselves. Findings of Vector Control Research Centre (VCRC)\u00a0 The scientists have been cross-breeding local Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which transmit dengue, chikungunya and zika virus, with mosquitoes that carry the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[26,33],"class_list":["post-6615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-gs-3","tag-science-technology"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/3433435Screenshot_6.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}