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A Wolbachia coinfection in the common bed bug
Hillary E Davis1,2, Joseph Torres3, Meaghan J Adler3
1Department of Emergency Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, United States.
ISME Communications
|August 11, 2026
Summary
Bed bugs harbor a second Wolbachia strain (wChem) alongside their essential nutritional symbiont. This discovery reveals a hidden layer of bed bug biology impacting their spread and control.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Entomology
- Genetics
Background:
- The common bed bug (Cimex lectularius) depends on a mutualistic Wolbachia strain (wCle) for essential B vitamins absent in human blood.
- Bed bugs are significant global pests, impacting public health and requiring effective control strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the microbial communities of hospital-collected bed bugs.
- To identify and characterize additional symbionts beyond the known nutritional mutualist.
Main Methods:
- Metatranscriptomic and metagenomic sequencing of bed bug samples.
- Bioinformatic analysis of publicly available genomic data.
- Phylogenetic analysis to determine symbiont distribution and host-switching events.
Main Results:
- A second Wolbachia strain, wChem, was identified in some Cimex lectularius individuals.
- wChem is globally distributed in bed bugs and has potentially recently transferred between Cimex lectularius and Cimex hemipterus.
- wChem expresses a cifA/B operon, indicative of cytoplasmic incompatibility, a reproductive manipulation strategy.
Conclusions:
- Bed bugs can harbor a coinfection of a nutritional mutualist (wCle) and a potentially manipulative symbiont (wChem).
- This coinfection represents a previously unrecognized aspect of bed bug biology.
- Understanding this coinfection has significant implications for bed bug evolution, global spread, and the development of novel control methods.
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