Diverse novel bacteria strains and genera-specific co-infections with bacteria in Culicine mosquitoes from ecologically diverse regions of Cameroon.

The endosymbiotic bacterium infects numerous species of insects and transinfection of mosquito species is now being used for biocontrol programs as strains can both inhibit arboviruses and invade wild mosquito populations. The discovery of novel, resident strains in mosquito species warrants further investigation as potential candidate strains for biocontrol strategies. We obtained mosquito specimens from diverse Culicine mosquitoes from Cameroon including ecologically diverse locations in the Central and West Regions. prevalence rates were assessed in addition to the environmentally acquired bacterial species in major Culicine genera. PCR-based methods were also used with phylogenetic analysis to confirm identities of host mosquito species and strains were classified using multi-locus sequence typing (MLST). : We report high prevalence rates for Culicine species, including in a large cohort of collected from west Cameroon in which 100% of mono-specific pools were infected. Furthermore, co-infections with bacteria were observed across multiple genera, demonstrating that these two bacteria can co-exist in wild mosquito populations.  strain MLST and phylogenetic analysis provided evidence for diverse strains in 13 different mosquito species across seven different genera.  Full or partial MLST profiles were generated from resident strains in six species ( , , and two species and and in and Our study provides further evidence that is widespread within wild mosquito populations of diverse Culicine species and provides further candidate strains that could be investigated as future options for -based biocontrol to inhibit arbovirus transmission.