Possible Arbovirus Found in Virome of Melophagus ovinus

Abstract

Members of the Lipopteninae subfamily are blood-sucking ectoparasites of mammals. The sheep ked (Melophagus ovinus) is a widely distributed ectoparasite of sheep. It can be found in most sheep-rearing areas and can cause skin irritation, restlessness, anemia, weight loss and skin injuries. Various bacteria and some viruses have been detected in M. ovinus; however, the virome of this ked has never been studied using modern approaches. Here, we study the virome of M. ovinus collected in the Republic of Tuva, Russia. In our research, we were able to assemble full genomes for five novel viruses, related to the Rhabdoviridae (Sigmavirus), Iflaviridae, Reoviridae and Solemoviridae families. Four viruses were found in all five of the studied pools, while one virus was found in two pools. Phylogenetically, all of the novel viruses clustered together with various recently described arthropod viruses. All the discovered viruses were tested on their ability to replicate in the mammalian porcine embryo kidney (PEK) cell line. Aksy-Durug Melophagus sigmavirus RNA was detected in the PEK cell line cultural supernate after the first, second and third passages. Such data imply that this virus might be able to replicate in mammalian cells, and thus, can be considered as a possible arbovirus.

Virome of Three Termite Species from Southern Vietnam

“…Earlier, it was suggested that Wifsystermes virus’ second ORF on the second segment requires the use of a variant genetic code, in which UGA is translated as tryptophan [ 7 ]. Here, and in our previous work [ 15 ], an alternative explanation was suggested for expression of the second ORF on the second segment in the novel solemo-like viruses. This ORF can be expressed via stop-codon codon read-through (a well-known mechanism of virus protein expression, typical for members of Polemovirus and Enamovirus (family Solemoviridae )) [ 21 ].…”

“…Two ORFs on the second segment are located in the same frame and are divided by a single stop codon (UGA). As a similar genome pattern is frequently found in other solemo-like viruses, it is likely that the second ORF on the second segment is expressed by stop codon read-through [ 1 , 2 , 15 ].…”

“…Termite specimens were homogenized in the pools ( Table 1 ) using Tissue Lyser 2 (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) for 15 min with frequency 25 s −1 . High-throughput sequencing and the data-processing pipeline were the same as described previously [ 15 ].…”

“…RNA was extracted using TRI Reagent LS (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MA, USA), according to the manufacturer’s manual. Reverse transcription with random hexamer primers (R6) and MMLV RT kit (Evrogen, Moscow, Russia) was performed on an isolated matrix following the manufacturer’s instructions [ 15 ]. PCR was performed using virus-specific oligonucleotides with Evrogen Taq-polymerase (Evrogen, Moscow, Russia) following the manufacturer’s instructions.…”

First determination of DNA virus and some additional bacteria from Melophagus ovinus (sheep ked) in Tibet, China

“…Sheep is the permanent host of M. ovinus ( Halos et al, 2004 ; Small, 2005 ; Kumsa et al, 2012 ; Liu et al, 2018 , 2019 ; Zhao et al, 2018 , 2020 ), but M. ovinus is also found in goats ( Bequaert, 1942 ; Seyoum et al, 2015 ), rabbits ( Small, 2005 ), dogs ( Tetley, 1958 ), donkeys ( Flores-Mendoza et al, 2021 ), European bison ( Izdebska, 2001 ), red foxes ( Lassnig et al, 1998 ), Tibetan sheep ( Hao et al, 2020 ), Tibetan antelope ( Liu et al, 2018 ; Zhao et al, 2018 , 2020 ) and humans ( Tetley, 1958 ). M. ovinus has a broad geographical distribution and is reported in Europe [e.g., Czechia ( Chrudimský et al, 2012 ; Nováková et al, 2015 ; Rudolf et al, 2016 ), Hungary ( Hornok et al, 2011 ), Slovakia ( Hubálek et al, 1986 ), Croatia ( Martinković et al, 2012 ), St Kilda ( Gibson et al, 2010 ), France ( Halos et al, 2004 ), Poland ( Werszko et al, 2021 ), Russia ( Litov et al, 2021 )], Africa [e.g., Ethiopia ( Kumsa et al, 2012 , 2014 ; Seyoum et al, 2015 ; Hadgu et al, 2021 ), Algeria ( Boucheikhchoukh et al, 2019 ), Kenya ( Liu et al, 2016 )], Oceania [e.g., Australia ( Liu et al, 2016 ; Litov et al, 2021 ), New Zealand ( Liu et al, 2016 )], North America [e.g., United States ( Halos et al, 2004 ; Kosoy et al, 2004 , 2016 )], South America [e.g., Peru ( Flores-Mendoza et al, 2021 )] and Asia [e.g., Turkey ( Payzin, 1953 ), Mongolia, India, Japan ( Liu et al, 2016 )]. In recent years, M. ovinus has frequently appeared in China, Asia in Tibet ( Chu et al, 2011 ), Gansu ( Duan et al, 2017 , 2020 ; Tang et al, 2018 ; Zhao et al, 2020 ), Xinjiang ( Liu et al, 2016 , 2017 , ...…”