Domesticating WO phage as a controllable transformation vector for Wolbachia engineering

Wolbachia has well-established capabilities as a gene drive and arbovirus resistance vector, however significant impediments exist for transformation and engineering of the bacteria. Recent research has identified the Wolbachia bacteriophage, WO, as a likely transformation platform for Wolbachia but issues remain, such as integrase site verification, selectable markers, and standardisation (1,2). This project will address these challenges by engineering a controllable variant of the bacteriophage in the Aedes aegypti endosymbiont, wAlbB that can be assembled and packaged in vitro and delivered to transform naïve hosts with any given gene cargo