Abstract
We present the genome organization and molecular characterization of the three Formica exsecta viruses, along with ORF predictions, and functional annotation of genes. The Formica exsecta virus-4 (FeV4; GenBank ID: MF287670) is a newly discovered negative-sense single-stranded RNA virus representing the first identified member of order Mononegavirales in ants, whereas the Formica exsecta virus-1 (FeV1; GenBank ID: KF500001), and the Formica exsecta virus-2 (FeV2; GenBank ID: KF500002) are positive single-stranded RNA viruses initially identified (but not characterized) in our earlier study. The new virus FeV4 was found by re-analyzing data from a study published earlier. The Formica exsecta virus-4 genome is 9,866 bp in size, with an overall G + C content of 44.92%, and containing five predicted open reading frames (ORFs). Our bioinformatics analysis indicates that gaps are absent and the ORFs are complete, which based on our comparative genomics analysis suggests that the genomes are complete. Following the characterization, we validate virus infection for FeV1, FeV2 and FeV4 for the first time in field-collected worker ants. Some colonies were infected by multiple viruses, and the viruses were observed to infect all castes, and multiple life stages of workers and queens. Finally, highly similar viruses were expressed in adult workers and queens of six other Formica species: F. fusca, F. pressilabris, F. pratensis, F. aquilonia, F. truncorum and F. cinerea. This research indicates that viruses can be shared between ant species, but further studies on viral transmission are needed to understand viral infection pathways.
Highlights
Insect-infecting viruses are known from 16 different virus families, and these show extensive variation in genome, and surface protein structure (Possee & King, 2014)
Two (FeV1 and Formica exsecta virus-2 (FeV2)) were reported earlier (Johansson et al, 2013), but one virus genome escaped detection in that paper owing to low sequence similarity to viral sequences deposited in GenBank, and scant functional
The annotated probable full genomes of the three viruses are available from GenBank ID: kF500001 (FeV1 virus, 9,554 bp), KF500002 (FeV2 virus, 9,160 bp), MF287670 (FeV4, 9,866 bp)
Summary
Insect-infecting viruses are known from 16 different virus families, and these show extensive variation in genome, and surface protein structure (Possee & King, 2014). (Nylanderia fulva virus 1 [NfV-1] (Valles et al, 2016), Linepithema humile (Linepithema humile virus 1 [LHUV-1] Lester et al, 2015; Sébastien et al, 2015), Solenopsis invicta (Solenopsis invicta virus 1,2,3 [SINV-1, SINV-2 and SINV-3] (Valles, 2012), Anoplolepis gracilipes (Black queen cell virus [BQCV] (Cooling et al, 2016). Transmission of these RNA viruses can occur both between closely related and distantly related host-species (Bailey, 1971; Chen & Siede, 2007; Celle et al, 2008; Levitt et al, 2013; Sébastien et al, 2015)
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