The asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus (Skuse) has spread rapidly in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas in the last few decades and from a public health standpoint, it deserves special attention, being an efficient vector of viruses that can cause disease in humans and other animals. In last decades scientists have given theoretical attention to the obligate intracellular endosymbiont Wolbachia pipientis (Ricketsiales) as potential tool for mosquito vector control. This bacterium is among the most widespread intracellular bacteria, carried by an estimated 15-76% of insect species among these Ae. albopictus. The most common reproduction manipulation imposed by the bacterium to its hosts is a form of conditional male sterility known as cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). This phenomenon was first discovered in the mosquito Culex pipiens and was then successfully exploited as source of natural sterility among different cross types for control strategy. Ae. albopictus is reported to be uniformly superinfected with two Wolbachia strains (wAlbA and wAlbB) throughout its geographical distribution. This symbiosis is characterized by strong level of CI observable in crosses between females of artificial aposymbiotic lines and wild infected males, high efficiency in maternal transmission and benefits to fitness of infected females. If from one hand this traits are a basic account to understand the fixation of this Wolbachia infection profile, from the other hand, they represent a limit for using CI as tool in vector control strategies based on incompatible male releases, since no evidence of crossing type polymorphism has been reported. A research project aimed at exploring new Wolbachia-infection profiles in the vector mosquito Ae. albopictus has started in the laboratory of Biological Control and Insect biotechnology of ENEA in Rome to achieve new incompatibility between mosquito lines harbouring Wolbachia strains drawn from other species (Culex pipiens, Drosophila spp.) and wild populations. In this presentation we report the results of the effect of exogenous Wolbachia strains on Aedes albopictus biology. Applied biological and molecular assays have been designed to study parameters such as CI level towards wild populations, fitness costs, maternal inheritance, pathogen interference and vectorial capacity (i.e for Chikungunya virus). Handling one or more mosquito lines with altered Wolbachia infection profile may have as a clear applicative implication in mosquito vector control strategies as well in understanding the intricate mechanisms underlying the association between the endosymbiont and its hosts.