Wolbachia pipientis Genome sequencing

The intracellular bacterium Wolbachia inhibits virus replication and is being harnessed around the world to fight mosquito-borne diseases through releases of mosquitoes carrying the symbiont. Wolbachia strains vary in their ability to invade mosquito populations and suppress viruses. Here we provide the complete genome of wAlbB-Uju, a variant of the Wolbachia strain wAlbB that is being used for the control of Dengue virus in Malaysia. wAlbB-Uju was purified from a laboratory line of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in which it was artificially transferred from its native host Aedes albopictus originating from Indonesia (Sulawesi island). The primary aim of this study was to sequence the genome of the wAlbB variant released in Malaysia and compare it to previously published wAlbB genomes. wAlbB-Uju was also sequenced from field-caught mosquitoes (wAlbB-Uju-MC, Mentari Court site) and compared to its laboratory counterpart to track genomic evolution that may have occured following mosquito releases in Malaysia.