Comparison of the density (<i>Wolbachia</i> genomes/host genome) of multiple <i>Wolbachia</i> strains cultured in the <i>ex vivo</i> setting.

<p><i>Wolbachia</i> strains: <i>w</i>AlbB (checkered) and <i>w</i>MelPop (solid) in ovaries of <i>An. gambiae</i>, <i>An. stephensi</i>, <i>C. tarsalis Ae. aegypti</i>, and <i>D. melanogaster</i> 2 days post infection. Ovaries naturally infected with <i>w</i>MelPop from <i>D. melanogaster</i> were cultured <i>ex vivo</i> for 2 days (yellow hatched) and are compared to the density in the fly (yellow horizontal lines). As the density of <i>Wolbachia</i> used as the inoculum for uninfected ovaries differed between strains, the final <i>Wolbachia</i> genomes:host genomes value were normalized to 10⁶ bacterial cells to compare between strains. The <i>w</i>MelPop strain infects <i>D. melanogaster</i> ovaries approximately 500 to 3000 fold higher, while <i>w</i>AlbB infects <i>Ae. aegypti</i> ovaries 1000 to 7000 fold greater than the other insect species. Asterisk(s) denote significance (** P<0.01, * P<0.05). There was no significant difference in <i>w</i>MelPop titer after two days of <i>ex vivo</i> culture compared to <i>in vivo</i>. For each insect species and <i>Wolbachia</i> strain, five pools, each containing five pairs of ovaries, were evaluated for <i>Wolbachia</i> density. Error bars indicated SEM.