Wolbachia, a widespread bacterium which can influence mosquito-borne pathogen transmission, has recently been detected within Anopheles (An.) species that are malaria vectors in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although studies have reported Wolbachia strains in the An. gambiae complex, apparent low density and prevalence rates require confirmation. In this study, wild Anopheles mosquitoes collected from two regions of Guinea were investigated. In contrast with previous studies, RNA was extracted from adult females (n = 516) to increase the chances for the detection of actively expressed Wolbachia genes, determine Wolbachia prevalence rates and estimate relative strain densities. Molecular confirmation of mosquito species and Wolbachia multilocus sequence typing (MLST) were carried out to analyse phylogenetic relationships of mosquito hosts and newly discovered Wolbachia strains. Strains were detected in An. melas (prevalence rate of 11.6%–16/138) and hybrids between An. melas and An. gambiae sensu stricto (prevalence rate of 40.0%–6/15) from Senguelen in the Maferinyah region. Furthermore, a novel high-density strain, termed wAnsX, was found in an unclassified Anopheles species. The discovery of novel Wolbachia strains (particularly in members, and hybrids, of the An. gambiae complex) provides further candidate strains that could be used for future Wolbachia-based malaria biocontrol strategies.

Wolbachia是一种广泛的细菌，可以影响蚊子传播病原体的传播，最近在撒哈拉以南非洲疟疾传播媒介的按蚊（An。）物种中发现了Wolbachia。尽管有研究报道了沃尔沃氏菌在An。冈比亚复杂，明显的低密度和患病率需要确认。在这项研究中，调查了从几内亚两个地区收集的野生按蚊。与以前的研究相反，从成年雌性中提取RNA（n = 516），以增加检测活跃表达的Wolbachia基因的机会，从而确定Wolbachia患病率和估计相对应变密度。进行了蚊子种类的分子确认和Wolbachia多基因座序列分型（MLST），以分析蚊子宿主和新发现的Wolbachia菌株的系统发育关系。在An中检测到菌株。梅拉斯（患病率11.6％–16 / 138）和An。梅拉斯和安。来自Maferinyah地区的Senguelen的冈比亚sensu stricto（患病率40.0％–6 / 15）。此外，在未分类的按蚊属物种中发现了一种新型的高密度菌株，称为w AnsX 。小说《沃尔巴克氏菌》的发现菌株（特别是冈比亚按蚊复合体的成员和杂种）提供了进一步的候选菌株，可用于未来基于沃尔巴克氏菌的疟疾生物防治策略。