A w AlbB Wolbachia Transinfection Displays Stable Phenotypic Effects across Divergent Aedes aegypti Mosquito Backgrounds.

mosquitoes harboring intracellular bacteria are being released in arbovirus and mosquito control programs. With releases taking place around the world, understanding the contribution of host variation to phenotype is crucial. We generated a transinfection (AlbB) in Aedes aegypti and performed backcrossing to introduce the infection into Australian or Malaysian nuclear backgrounds. Whole genome sequencing shows that the AlbB transinfection is nearly identical to the reference AlbB genome, suggesting few changes since the infection was first introduced to A. aegypti over 15 years ago. However, these sequences were distinct from other available AlbB genome sequences, highlighting the potential diversity of AlbB in natural Aedes albopictus populations. Phenotypic comparisons demonstrate the effects of AlbB infection on egg hatching and nuclear background on fecundity and body size but no interactions between AlbB infection and nuclear background for any trait. The AlbB infection was stable at high temperatures and showed perfect maternal transmission and cytoplasmic incompatibility regardless of the host background. Our results demonstrate the stability of AlbB across host backgrounds and point to its long-term effectiveness for controlling arbovirus transmission and mosquito populations. bacteria are being used to control the transmission of dengue virus and other arboviruses by mosquitoes. For release programs to be effective globally, infections must be stable across mosquito populations from different locations. In this study, we transferred (strain AlbB) to Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with an Australian genotype and introduced the infection to Malaysian mosquitoes through backcrossing. We found that the phenotypic effects of are stable across both mosquito backgrounds. We sequenced the genome of AlbB and found very few genetic changes despite spending over 15 years in a novel mosquito host. Our results suggest that the effects of infections are likely to remain stable across time and host genotype.