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The wMel Wolbachia strain blocks dengue and invades caged Aedes aegypti populations

Overview of attention for article published in Nature, August 2011
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (96th percentile)

Citations

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1081 Dimensions

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1120 Mendeley
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2 CiteULike
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Title
The wMel Wolbachia strain blocks dengue and invades caged Aedes aegypti populations
Published in
Nature, August 2011
DOI 10.1038/nature10355
Pubmed ID
Authors

T. Walker, P. H. Johnson, L. A. Moreira, I. Iturbe-Ormaetxe, F. D. Frentiu, C. J. McMeniman, Y. S. Leong, Y. Dong, J. Axford, P. Kriesner, A. L. Lloyd, S. A. Ritchie, S. L. O’Neill, A. A. Hoffmann

Abstract

Dengue fever is the most important mosquito-borne viral disease of humans with more than 50 million cases estimated annually in more than 100 countries. Disturbingly, the geographic range of dengue is currently expanding and the severity of outbreaks is increasing. Control options for dengue are very limited and currently focus on reducing population abundance of the major mosquito vector, Aedes aegypti. These strategies are failing to reduce dengue incidence in tropical communities and there is an urgent need for effective alternatives. It has been proposed that endosymbiotic bacterial Wolbachia infections of insects might be used in novel strategies for dengue control. For example, the wMelPop-CLA Wolbachia strain reduces the lifespan of adult A. aegypti mosquitoes in stably transinfected lines. This life-shortening phenotype was predicted to reduce the potential for dengue transmission. The recent discovery that several Wolbachia infections, including wMelPop-CLA, can also directly influence the susceptibility of insects to infection with a range of insect and human pathogens has markedly changed the potential for Wolbachia infections to control human diseases. Here we describe the successful transinfection of A. aegypti with the avirulent wMel strain of Wolbachia, which induces the reproductive phenotype cytoplasmic incompatibility with minimal apparent fitness costs and high maternal transmission, providing optimal phenotypic effects for invasion. Under semi-field conditions, the wMel strain increased from an initial starting frequency of 0.65 to near fixation within a few generations, invading A. aegypti populations at an accelerated rate relative to trials with the wMelPop-CLA strain. We also show that wMel and wMelPop-CLA strains block transmission of dengue serotype 2 (DENV-2) in A. aegypti, forming the basis of a practical approach to dengue suppression.

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X Demographics

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 1,120 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 20 2%
Brazil 9 <1%
France 4 <1%
Germany 4 <1%
United Kingdom 4 <1%
Japan 3 <1%
Australia 3 <1%
Indonesia 2 <1%
Spain 2 <1%
Other 14 1%
Unknown 1055 94%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 219 20%
Researcher 202 18%
Student > Bachelor 161 14%
Student > Master 157 14%
Student > Doctoral Student 50 4%
Other 177 16%
Unknown 154 14%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 512 46%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 147 13%
Medicine and Dentistry 78 7%
Immunology and Microbiology 47 4%
Environmental Science 35 3%
Other 116 10%
Unknown 185 17%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 269. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 03 August 2022.
All research outputs
#124,384
of 24,184,356 outputs
Outputs from Nature
#8,373
of 94,389 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#393
of 126,924 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nature
#29
of 876 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,184,356 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 94,389 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 101.4. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 126,924 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 876 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.