The Diversity and Distribution of Viruses Associated with Culex annulirostris Mosquitoes from the Kimberley Region of Western Australia

Williams, Simon H.; Levy, Avram; Yates, Rachel A.; Somaweera, Nilusha; Neville, Peter J.; Nicholson, Jay; Lindsay, M.D.; Mackenzie, John S.; Jain, Komal; Imrie, Allison; Smith, David W.; Lipkin, W. Ian

doi:10.3390/v12070717

Cited by 19 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Confirmed GETV reads were found in mosquito sequencing SRA submissions from China ( Table 1 , Bioproject PRJNA271540), whereas they were not found in wild-caught mosquitos from Victoria or Queensland, Australia ( Table 2 ). Other studies of mosquitoes from Western Australia reported not finding any arbovirus sequences [ 41 ] or sequences with homology to known human or mammalian pathogens [ 42 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sequencing of Historical Isolates, K-mer Mining and High Serological Cross-Reactivity with Ross River Virus Argue against the Presence of Getah Virus in Australia

et al. 2020

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Getah virus (GETV) is a mosquito-transmitted alphavirus primarily associated with disease in horses and pigs in Asia. GETV was also reported to have been isolated from mosquitoes in Australia in 1961; however, retrieval and sequencing of the original isolates (N544 and N554), illustrated that these viruses were virtually identical to the 1955 GETVMM2021 isolate from Malaysia. K-mer mining of the >40,000 terabases of sequence data in the Sequence Read Archive followed by BLASTn confirmation identified multiple GETV sequences in biosamples from Asia (often as contaminants), but not in biosamples from Australia. In contrast, sequence reads aligning to the Australian Ross River virus (RRV) were readily identified in Australian biosamples. To explore the serological relationship between GETV and other alphaviruses, an adult wild-type mouse model of GETV was established. High levels of cross-reactivity and cross-protection were evident for convalescent sera from mice infected with GETV or RRV, highlighting the difficulties associated with the interpretation of early serosurveys reporting GETV antibodies in Australian cattle and pigs. The evidence that GETV circulates in Australia is thus not compelling.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sequencing of Historical Isolates, K-mer Mining and High Serological Cross-Reactivity with Ross River Virus Argue against the Presence of Getah Virus in Australia

et al. 2020

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“…Li,Shi (2) reported the first species of a tenui-like virus, Horsefly horwuvirus (virus WhHV), associated with a pool of horseflies (family Tabanidae), and proposed that it may represent an transitional form between plant-infecting virus and arthropod-specific viruses. In addition, a partial genome of a new tenuilike, FCTenV1, has been recently reported associated to Culex annulirostris (49). While these two tenui-like viruses have been reported associated with flies (Order Diptera), we characterized a new tenui-like virus closely related to the FCTenV1, associated to S. invicta (Order Hymenoptera).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…The use of metatranscriptome approach has allowed the discovery of divergent groups of RNA viruses contributing to a better understanding about origin and evolutionary history of viruses associated with the most diverse host taxa (56). While the origins of viruses that replicate in plant and insect vectors remains still unknown, such as those within order Bunyavirales and Mononegavirales, the discovery of possible intermediate forms has been suggested (2,49).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ever-increasing viral diversity associated with the red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta (Formicidae: Hymenoptera)

Xavier

Allen

Whitfield

2020

Preprint

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BackgroundAdvances in sequencing and analysis tools have facilitated discovery of many new viruses from invertebrates, including ants. Solenopsis invicta is an invasive ant that has quickly spread around world causing significant ecological and economic impacts. Its virome has begun to be characterized pertaining to potential use of viruses as natural enemies. Although the S. invicta virome is best characterized among ants, most studies have been performed in its native range, with little information from invaded areas.MethodsUsing a metatranscriptome approach, we further characterized viruses associated with S. invicta, in two introduced areas, U.S and Taiwan. The data set used here was obtained from different stages (larvae, pupa, and adults) of S. invicta life cycle. Publicly available RNA sequences from GenBank’s Sequence Read Archive were downloaded and de novo assembled using CLC Genomics Workbench 20.0.1. Contigs were compared against the non-redundant protein sequences and those showing similarity to viral sequences were further analyzed.ResultsWe characterized five putative new viruses associated with S. invicta transcriptomes. Sequence comparisons revealed extensive divergence across ORFs and genomic regions with most of them sharing less than 40% amino acid identity with those closest homologous sequences previously characterized. The first negative-sense single-stranded RNA viruses included in the orders Bunyavirales and Mononegavirales are reported. In addition, two positive single-strand viruses and one single strand DNA virus were also characterized. While the presence of a putative tenuivirus associated with S. invicta was previously suggested to be a contamination, here we characterized and present strong evidence that Solenopsis invicta virus 14 (SINV-14) is a tenui-like virus that has a long-term association with the ant. Furthermore, based on virus abundance compared to housekeeping genes, phylogenetic relationships, and completeness of viral coding sequences, our results suggest that four of five viruses reported, those being SINV-14, SINV-15, SINV-16 and SINV-17, replicate in the ant S. invicta.ConclusionsThe present study expands our knowledge about viral diversity associated with S. invicta in introduced areas with potential to be used as biological control agents, which will require further biological characterization.

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“…Li, Shi [2] reported the first tenui-like virus, Horsefly horwuvirus (virus WhHV), associated with a pool of horseflies (family Tabanidae), and proposed that it may represent a transitional form between plant-infecting virus and arthropod-specific viruses. In addition, a partial genome sequence of another tenui-like, FCTenV1, has been reported associated to Culex annulirostris [51]. While these two tenuilike viruses have been reported associated with flies (Order Diptera), we characterized a new tenui-like virus sequence closely related to the FCTenV1, associated with S. invicta transcriptome (Order Hymenoptera).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…While the origins of viruses that replicate in plant and insect vectors remains unknown, such as those within order Bunyavirales and Mononegavirales, the discovery of possible intermediate forms has been suggested [2,51]. Whereas tenuiviruses are known to be plant viruses that replicate in the insect vector tenui-like viruses have been reported from non-plant vectors.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ever-increasing viral diversity associated with the red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta (Formicidae: Hymenoptera)

Xavier

Allen

Whitfield

2021

Virol J

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Background Advances in sequencing and analysis tools have facilitated discovery of many new viruses from invertebrates, including ants. Solenopsis invicta is an invasive ant that has quickly spread worldwide causing significant ecological and economic impacts. Its virome has begun to be characterized pertaining to potential use of viruses as natural enemies. Although the S. invicta virome is the best characterized among ants, most studies have been performed in its native range, with less information from invaded areas. Methods Using a metatranscriptome approach, we further identified and molecularly characterized virus sequences associated with S. invicta, in two introduced areas, U.S and Taiwan. The data set used here was obtained from different stages (larvae, pupa, and adults) of S. invicta life cycle. Publicly available RNA sequences from GenBank’s Sequence Read Archive were downloaded and de novo assembled using CLC Genomics Workbench 20.0.1. Contigs were compared against the non-redundant protein sequences and those showing similarity to viral sequences were further analyzed. Results We characterized five putative new viruses associated with S. invicta transcriptomes. Sequence comparisons revealed extensive divergence across ORFs and genomic regions with most of them sharing less than 40% amino acid identity with those closest homologous sequences previously characterized. The first negative-sense single-stranded RNA virus genomic sequences included in the orders Bunyavirales and Mononegavirales are reported. In addition, two positive single-strand virus genome sequences and one single strand DNA virus genome sequence were also identified. While the presence of a putative tenuivirus associated with S. invicta was previously suggested to be a contamination, here we characterized and present strong evidence that Solenopsis invicta virus 14 (SINV-14) is a tenui-like virus that has a long-term association with the ant. Furthermore, based on virus sequence abundance compared to housekeeping genes, phylogenetic relationships, and completeness of viral coding sequences, our results suggest that four of five virus sequences reported, those being SINV-14, SINV-15, SINV-16 and SINV-17, may be associated to viruses actively replicating in the ant S. invicta. Conclusions The present study expands our knowledge about viral diversity associated with S. invicta in introduced areas with potential to be used as biological control agents, which will require further biological characterization.

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The Diversity and Distribution of Viruses Associated with Culex annulirostris Mosquitoes from the Kimberley Region of Western Australia

Cited by 19 publications

References 37 publications

Sequencing of Historical Isolates, K-mer Mining and High Serological Cross-Reactivity with Ross River Virus Argue against the Presence of Getah Virus in Australia

Sequencing of Historical Isolates, K-mer Mining and High Serological Cross-Reactivity with Ross River Virus Argue against the Presence of Getah Virus in Australia

Ever-increasing viral diversity associated with the red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta (Formicidae: Hymenoptera)

Ever-increasing viral diversity associated with the red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta (Formicidae: Hymenoptera)

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