wolbachia endobacteria in natural populations of culex pipiens of iran and its phylogenetic congruence

background: wolbachia  are common intracellular bacteria that infect different groups of arthropods including mos­quitoes. these bacteria modify host biology and may induce feminization, parthenogenesis, male killing and cyto­plasmic incompatibility (ci). recently wolbachia  is being nominated as a bio-agent and paratransgenic candidate to control mosquito borne diseases. methods: here we report the results of a survey for presence, frequency, and phylogenetic congruence of these en­dosymbiont bacteria in culex pipiens populations in northern, central, and southern parts of iran using nested-pcr amplification of wsp gene. results : wolbachia dna were found in 227 (87.3%) out of 260 wild-caught mosquitoes. the rate of infection in adult females ranged from 61.5% to 100%, while in males were from 80% to 100%. the blast search and phyloge­netic analysis of the wsp gene sequence revealed that the wolbachia strain from iranian cx. pipiens was identical to the wolbachia strains of supergroup b previously reported in members of the cx. pipiens complex. they had also identical sequence homology with the wolbachia strains from a group of distinct arthropods including lepidopteran, wasps, flies, damselfly, thrips, and mites from remote geographical areas of the world. conclusion: it is suggested that wolbachia strains horizontally transfer between unrelated host organisms over evo­lutionary time. also results of this study indicates that wolbachia infections were highly prevalent infecting all cx. pipiens populations throughout the country, however further study needs to define wolbachia inter-population repro­ductive incompatibility pattern and its usefulness as a bio-agent control measure.