Wolbachia -boon or bane for insects?

Wolbachia is a maternally inherited endosymbiotic bacteria found in arthropods. They are geographically omnipresent and estimated to infect 75% of all insect species. The microbe is best known for its manipulations of reproductive ecology of their hosts, all of which confer a selective advantage to the bacteria by enhancing their vertical transmission. The reproductive manipulations include, cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI): an incompatibility between sperm and egg results in sterility; feminization (FM): feminization of genetic males; male killing (MK): skew sex ratios in favor of females through selective male killing and parthenogenesis (PI): induction of thelytoky. The reproductive manipulations induced by Wolbachia in insects are boon for them by increasing their own population and providing the fitness benefits to the host. The potential application of the symbiotic bacteria Wolbachia to control the insect pests and their vector-borne diseases is bane for insect pests and vectors. In the present review discuss consequences of Wolbachia in their host biology.