Insights into the Host Specificity of Mosquito-Borne Flaviviruses Infecting Wild Mammals

Sotomayor-Bonilla, Jesús; Tolsá-García, María José; García‐Peña, Gabriel E.; Santiago‐Alarcon, Diego; Mendoza, Hugo; Álvarez‐Mendizábal, Paulina; Rico-Chávez, Óscar; Sarmiento-Silva, Rosa Elena; Suzán, Gerardo

doi:10.1007/s10393-019-01442-2

Cited by 10 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…There is known circulation of VEEV and St, Louis encephalitis virus in southern Mexico, and WNV antibodies have also been reported in chicken, turkey, and cattle in Chiapas (39,(94)(95)(96). Despite these observations, we failed to detect Flavivirus or Alphavirus RNA using generic primers on both pools of unfed mosquitoes ( Table 6) or individual blood-fed specimens ( Table 4).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

An Integrated Molecular Approach to Untangling Host–Vector–Pathogen Interactions in Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) From Sylvan Communities in Mexico

et al. 2021

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There are ~240 species of Culicidae in Mexico, of which some are vectors of arthropod-borne viruses such as Zika virus, dengue virus, chikungunya virus, and West Nile virus. Thus, the identification of mosquito feeding preferences is paramount to understanding of vector–host–pathogen interactions that, in turn, can aid the control of disease outbreaks. Typically, DNA and RNA are extracted separately for animal (insects and blood meal hosts) and viral identification, but this study demonstrates that multiple organisms can be analyzed from a single RNA extract. For the first time, residual DNA present in standard RNA extracts was analyzed by DNA barcoding in concert with Sanger and next-generation sequencing (NGS) to identify both the mosquito species and the source of their meals in blood-fed females caught in seven sylvan communities in Chiapas State, Mexico. While mosquito molecular identification involved standard barcoding methods, the sensitivity of blood meal identification was maximized by employing short primers with NGS. In total, we collected 1,634 specimens belonging to 14 genera, 25 subgenera, and 61 morphospecies of mosquitoes. Of these, four species were new records for Mexico (Aedes guatemala, Ae. insolitus, Limatus asulleptus, Trichoprosopon pallidiventer), and nine were new records for Chiapas State. DNA barcode sequences for >300 bp of the COI gene were obtained from 291 specimens, whereas 130 bp sequences were recovered from another 179 specimens. High intraspecific divergence values (>2%) suggesting cryptic species complexes were observed in nine taxa: Anopheles eiseni (5.39%), An. pseudopunctipennis (2.79%), Ae. podographicus (4.05%), Culex eastor (4.88%), Cx. erraticus (2.28%), Toxorhynchites haemorrhoidalis (4.30%), Tr. pallidiventer (4.95%), Wyeomyia adelpha/Wy. guatemala (7.30%), and Wy. pseudopecten (4.04%). The study increased the number of mosquito species known from 128 species to 138 species for Chiapas State, and 239 for Mexico as a whole. Blood meal analysis showed that Aedes angustivittatus fed on ducks and chicken, whereas Psorophora albipes fed on humans. Culex quinquefasciatus fed on diverse hosts including chicken, human, turkey, and Mexican grackle. No arbovirus RNA was detected by reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction in the surveyed specimens. This study demonstrated, for the first time, that residual DNA present in RNA blood meal extracts can be used to identify host vectors, highlighting the important role of molecular approaches in both vector identification and revealing host–vector–pathogen interactions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

An Integrated Molecular Approach to Untangling Host–Vector–Pathogen Interactions in Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) From Sylvan Communities in Mexico

et al. 2021

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“…Our analysis shows that no group clusters near Culex quinquefasciatus , suggesting that this is not an optimal host for most flaviviruses. However, Culex mosquitoes are relatively good vector-hosts for certain flaviviruses (e.g., JEV and WNV) and in many cases the preferred mosquito vector-host is debatable [ 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ]. Our results indicate a higher adaptation of MBFV towards Aedes ; however, a higher genomic adaptation does not imply that Aedes is currently the most common host-vector for all MBFV, as additional factors should be considered.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Unsupervised Algorithm for Host Identification in Flaviviruses

Nguyen

Garcı́a-Vallvé

Puigbò

2021

Life

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Early characterization of emerging viruses is essential to control their spread, such as the Zika Virus outbreak in 2014. Among other non-viral factors, host information is essential for the surveillance and control of virus spread. Flaviviruses (genus Flavivirus), akin to other viruses, are modulated by high mutation rates and selective forces to adapt their codon usage to that of their hosts. However, a major challenge is the identification of potential hosts for novel viruses. Usually, potential hosts of emerging zoonotic viruses are identified after several confirmed cases. This is inefficient for deterring future outbreaks. In this paper, we introduce an algorithm to identify the host range of a virus from its raw genome sequences. The proposed strategy relies on comparing codon usage frequencies across viruses and hosts, by means of a normalized Codon Adaptation Index (CAI). We have tested our algorithm on 94 flaviviruses and 16 potential hosts. This novel method is able to distinguish between arthropod and vertebrate hosts for several flaviviruses with high values of accuracy (virus group 91.9% and host type 86.1%) and specificity (virus group 94.9% and host type 79.6%), in comparison to empirical observations. Overall, this algorithm may be useful as a complementary tool to current phylogenetic methods in monitoring current and future viral outbreaks by understanding host–virus relationships.

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“…Furthermore, empirical evidence of non-human primates able to act as reservoirs of epidemic DENV [in particular DENV-2 in an animal breeding facility in the Philippines; (8)] highlights the need to survey potential wild animal reservoirs both in urban (e.g., zoos) and non-urban (e.g., peri-urban forest fragments, agricultural lands) areas, where spillback of urban DENV from humans toward non-human primates or other wild animals can happen [e.g., (53)]. Finally, in a recent analysis within the Flaviviridae, DENV was the only generalist virus capable of infecting several species across the Chiroptera, Rodentia, and Didelphimorphia (32). Therefore, we suggest that researchers around the world must consider a priority the inclusion of the wild community of potential reservoirs within their DENV surveillance efforts, particularly in areas where the interactions between humans and wild animals is higher (e.g., agricultural lands, peri-urban areas).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

American Mammals Susceptibility to Dengue According to Geographical, Environmental, and Phylogenetic Distances

2021

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Many human emergent and re-emergent diseases have a sylvatic cycle. Yet, little effort has been put into discovering and modeling the wild mammal reservoirs of dengue (DENV), particularly in the Americas. Here, we show a species-level susceptibility prediction to dengue of wild mammals in the Americas as a function of the three most important biodiversity dimensions (ecological, geographical, and phylogenetic spaces), using machine learning protocols. Model predictions showed that different species of bats would be highly susceptible to DENV infections, where susceptibility mostly depended on phylogenetic relationships among hosts and their environmental requirement. Mammal species predicted as highly susceptible coincide with sets of species that have been reported infected in field studies, but it also suggests other species that have not been previously considered or that have been captured in low numbers. Also, the environment (i.e., the distance between the species' optima in bioclimatic dimensions) in combination with geographic and phylogenetic distance is highly relevant in predicting susceptibility to DENV in wild mammals. Our results agree with previous modeling efforts indicating that temperature is an important factor determining DENV transmission, and provide novel insights regarding other relevant factors and the importance of considering wild reservoirs. This modeling framework will aid in the identification of potential DENV reservoirs for future surveillance efforts.

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Insights into the Host Specificity of Mosquito-Borne Flaviviruses Infecting Wild Mammals

Cited by 10 publications

References 29 publications

An Integrated Molecular Approach to Untangling Host–Vector–Pathogen Interactions in Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) From Sylvan Communities in Mexico

An Integrated Molecular Approach to Untangling Host–Vector–Pathogen Interactions in Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) From Sylvan Communities in Mexico

An Unsupervised Algorithm for Host Identification in Flaviviruses

American Mammals Susceptibility to Dengue According to Geographical, Environmental, and Phylogenetic Distances

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