Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2025 Mar 18:15:1547873.
doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1547873. eCollection 2025.

Understanding the role of trehalose in interactions between Wolbachia and Aedes aegypti

Benjamin Dupuis  1 , Nicolas Pocquet  2 , Anna-Bella Failloux  1
Affiliations
Review

Understanding the role of trehalose in interactions between Wolbachia and Aedes aegypti

Benjamin Dupuis et al. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. .

Abstract

Mosquito-borne diseases such as chikungunya, dengue, and Zika represent a major burden on global public health. To fight against these arboviruses, vector control strategies are a priority. One existing strategy is based on the use of an endosymbiotic bacterium, Wolbachia, which reduces the transmission of arboviruses by the mosquito Aedes aegypti via a pathogen blocking effect. Wolbachia in Ae. aegypti disrupts several pathways of the host's metabolism. Trehalose is a carbohydrate circulating mainly in insect hemolymph and plays a role in numerous mechanisms as energy source or stress recovery molecule and in chitin synthesis. This study explores the importance of trehalose in the interactions between Wolbachia and Ae. aegypti, and attempts to understand the pathogen blocking effect.

Keywords: Aedes aegypti; Wolbachia; antioxidant; autophagy; pathogen-blocking effect; trehalose.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Trehalose molecule, synthesis and pathway. (A) Haworth representation of trehalose, a glucose dimer linked by a α,α-1,1 bond. (B) Trehaloneogenesis, the trehalose-forming metabolic pathway. (C) Trehalose involved in trehaloneogenesis and glycolysis. UDP, Uridine diphosphate glucose; iP, inorganic phosphate; TPS, Trehalose 6-phosphate synthase; TPP, Trehalose 6-phosphatase; TREH, Trehalase; GLUT1, Glucose transporter I; HK, Hexokinase; PGM, Phosphoglucomutase; GP, Glycogen phosphorylase; G1P, Glucose 1-phsophate; G6P, glucose 6-phosphate; T6P, trehalose 6-phosphate; HTH, Hypertrehalosemic hormone;TRET1, Trehalose transporter I (Created in https://BioRender.com).
Figure 2
Figure 2
The role of trehalose in interactions between Wolbachia and Aedes aegypti. The green circles with a W represent Wolbachia bacteria. TREH, Trehalase; GLUT1, Glucose transporter; TRET, Trehalose transporter; Tnut, Transporter of nutrients; G6P, glucose 6-phosphate; G3P, Glycéraldéhyde-3-phosphate; JH, Juvenile hormone; AKH, Adipokinetic hormones; miRNA, microRNA. (Created in https://BioRender.com).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Achee N. L., Grieco J. P., Vatandoost H., Seixas G., Pinto J., Ching-NG L., et al. . (2019). Alternative strategies for mosquito-borne arbovirus control. PloS Negl. Trop. Dis. 13, e0006822. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0006822 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Asgarian T. S., Vatandoost H., Hanafi-Bojd A. A., Nikpoor F. (2023). Worldwide Status of Insecticide Resistance of Aedes aEgypti and Ae. albopictus, Vectors of Arboviruses of Chikungunya, Dengue, Zika and Yellow Fever. J. Arthropod-Borne Dis. 17, 1–27. doi: 10.18502/jad.v17i1.13198 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Asselineau C., Asselineau J. (1978). Trehalose-containing glycolipids. Prog. Chem. Fats Other Lipids 16, 59–99. doi: 10.1016/0079-6832(78)90037-X - DOI - PubMed
    1. Barletta A. B. F., Alves L. R., Nascimento Silva M. C. L., Sim S., Dimopoulos G., Liechocki S., et al. . (2016). Emerging role of lipid droplets in Aedes aEgypti immune response against bacteria and Dengue virus. Sci. Rep. 6, 19928. doi: 10.1038/srep19928 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Becker A., Schlöder P., Steele J. E., Wegener G. (1996). The regulation of trehalose metabolism in insects. Experientia 52, 433–439. doi: 10.1007/BF01919312 - DOI - PubMed