New Cell Lines Derived from Laboratory Colony Triatoma infestans and Rhodnius prolixus, Vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi, Do Not Harbour Triatoma Virus

Abstract

Triatomine bugs of the genera Triatoma and Rhodnius are vectors of Chagas disease, a neglected tropical disease of humans in South America caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. Triatoma virus (TrV), a natural pathogen of Triatoma infestans, has been proposed as a possible tool for the bio-control of triatomine bugs, but research into this virus has been hampered by a lack of suitable host cells for in vitro propagation. Here we report establishment and partial characterisation of continuous cell lines from embryos of T. infestans (TIE/LULS54) and Rhodnius prolixus (RPE/LULS53 and RPE/LULS57). RNAseq screening by a sequence-independent, single primer amplification approach confirmed the absence of TrV and other RNA viruses known to infect R. prolixus, indicating that these new cell lines could be used for propagation of TrV.

“Embryonic piRNAs target horizontally transferred vertebrate transposons in assassin bugs”

“…The observation that Rp-piwi3 expression levels are low in oogenesis and almost undetectable in nymphs, where the ~28 nt piRNAs are barely produced, seem to lend support to this hypothesis. The cell lines that were recently developed from Rhodnius embryos will likely provide a valuable tool to dissect the function of the different Rp-PIWI genes in piRNA biogenesis and transposon silencing as well as shed light on the transcriptional regulation of the piRNA clusters [56].…”