Tehran University of Medical Sciences Journal of Arthropod-Borne Diseases 2322-1984 10 3 2016 06 18 349 365 EN Mohsen Karami Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Seyed Hassan Moosa-Kazemi Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Mohammad Ali Oshaghi Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Hasan Vatandoost Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Mohammad Mehdi Sedaghat Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Ramazan Rajabnia Infectious Diseases & Tropical Medicine Research Center, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran Mostafa Hosseini Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Naseh Maleki-Ravasan Malaria and Vector Research Group, Biotechnology Research Center, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran Yousef Yahyapour Infectious Diseases & Tropical Medicine Research Center, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran Elaheh Ferdosi-Shahandashti Department of Advanced Technologies in Medicine (SATiM), Medical Biotechnology,Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2015 10 21 2015 10 21 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. https://jad.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jad/article/view/305 https://jad.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jad/article/download/305/276