Symbionts conferring resistance to viruses in insects

Recently, PLoS Pathogens published an interesting paper of Julien Martinez and collaborators, about the protective role of Wolbachia from viral infections in Drosophila hosts. This work is part of a wider context of studies aimed to define the mechanisms of Wolbachia-mediated protection to a broad spectrum of pathogens in insects infected with specific strains of this bacterium. The exploitation of bacterial symbionts represents a very hot topic in regard to the control of diseases transmitted by insect vectors. In fact, recently the Wolbachia infection of mosquito vectors of Dengue virus turned out to be an innovative approach, particularly effective in combating this infection.