title: Novel virus discovery and genome reconstruction from field RNA samples reveals highly divergent viruses in dipteran hosts.
abstract: We investigated whether small RNA (sRNA) sequenced from field-collected mosquitoes and chironomids (Diptera) can be used as a proxy signature of viral prevalence within a range of species and viral groups, using sRNAs sequenced from wild-caught specimens, to inform total RNA deep sequencing of samples of particular interest. Using this strategy, we sequenced from adult Anopheles maculipennis s.l. mosquitoes the apparently nearly complete genome of one previously undescribed virus related to chronic bee paralysis virus, and, from a pool of Ochlerotatus caspius and Oc. detritus mosquitoes, a nearly complete entomobirnavirus genome. We also reconstructed long sequences (1503-6557 nt) related to at least nine other viruses. Crucially, several of the sequences detected were reconstructed from host organisms highly divergent from those in which related viruses have been previously isolated or discovered. It is clear that viral transmission and maintenance cycles in nature are likely to be significantly more complex and taxonomically diverse than previously expected.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Shelley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: Betty Y-W
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bass
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Moureau
authors.forename: Shuoya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Erica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: McAlister
authors.forename: C Lorna
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Culverwell
authors.forename: Edvard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Glücksman
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: T David K
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Ernest A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Gould
authors.forename: Ralph E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Harbach
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: de Lamballerie
authors.forename: Andrew E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Firth
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003062:Codon; D009033:Culicidae / Q000821:virology; D004175:Diptera / Q000821:virology*; D019203:Entomobirnavirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D016368:Frameshift Mutation; D016679:Genome, Viral; D007304:Insect Viruses / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012367:RNA, Viral; D016364:Reading Frames; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D020506:Untranslated Regions
chemical_list: D003062:Codon; D012367:RNA, Viral; D020506:Untranslated Regions