Wolbachia for Lucilia cuprina control

Wolbachia are endosymbiotic bacteria found in up to 60% of insect species, although infection rates among populations can vary extensively (Werren et al., 2008). Wolbachia infection can cause negative fitness effects on their hosts and provide desirable attributes for pest control. Some of these effects include reduced life span (McMeniman et al., 2009), mortality of eggs, slowed larval development (Ross et al., 2014), inability to overwinter and reduced overall fitness. Wolbachia can quickly spread through local populations, and insect replacement techniques that involved releasing Wolbachia infected mosquitoes have shown remarkable success in controlling human diseases in northern Australia and overseas. Lucilia cuprina strains carrying Wolbachia species are currently being reared at both the University of Melbourne and University of Queensland. In addition, University of Queensland has adapted three strains of Wolbachia (wMel, wMelPop and wAlbB) to Haematobia cell lines, which have been reared through more than 50 passages (Madhav, Brown, et al., 2020). Together, these foundational laboratory resources will be used to explore potential new Lucilia cuprina control programs using Wolbachia. Identifying fitness effects induced in Lucilia flies by different Wolbachia strains may also assist the researchers to better understand and/or identify traits valuable for pest control. For example, shortened lifespan, reduced reproduction capacity or inability to overwinter.