New research finds that global warming may limit the spread of dengue fever

"Dengue fever is a potentially fatal disease.

In recent years, research groups around the world have tried to control these viruses by infecting Ae

She said: "Wolbachia has been shown to prevent viruses including dengue fever from replicating in mosquitoes

McGraw pointed out that both dengue virus and Wolbachia can infect various tissues throughout the body of mosquitoes.

She said: “Because mosquitoes infected with dengue virus and/or Wolbachia are already under stress, we think they will be less able to cope with additional stressors (such as high temperatures)

In order to study the effect of high temperature on dengue fever and Wolbachia infected mosquitoes, the research team placed the infected mosquitoes in a sealed vial, and then immersed the vial in a water bath heated to 42 degrees Celsius-this is what mosquitoes may encounter in the wild Realistic extreme temperature

Fhallon Ware-Gilmore said: "After a lot of trial and error, we successfully applied a heat-based physiological test commonly used in fruit flies (a model fruit fly species) to our mosquito species to test for dengue fever.

The research team found that mosquitoes infected with the dengue virus showed greater sensitivity to heat; when they were placed in a hot tub, they were almost three times as fast as uninfected mosquitoes

Interestingly, Ware-Gilmore said, these two pathogens—dengue virus and Wolbachia—have no additive effect on the heat tolerance of mosquitoes

She said: "You might think that mosquitoes infected with both dengue virus and Wolbachia may be more likely to be immobilized than mosquitoes infected with only one or the other microorganism, but we did not find a superimposed effect

Ware-Gilmore pointed out that future climate models point out that the frequency of extreme temperature events is increasing, and short-term exposure to high temperatures poses a threat to the survival of mosquitoes infected with dengue fever and Wolbachia

She said: "At lower temperatures, we know that the dengue virus may not replicate fast enough to spread through the mosquitoes, thereby reducing the risk of transmission

Other Penn State University paper authors include Heverton Dutra, a postdoctoral scholar in entomology; Matthew Jones, an assistant researcher at the Harker Institute of Life Sciences; and Katriona Shea, a professor of biology and alumni professor of biology

The International Network of Excellence and Pennsylvania State University supported this research

Journal Reference :

1. Fhallon Ware-Gilmore, Carla M.