Metagenomic Analysis Reveals Three Novel and Prevalent Mosquito Viruses from a Single Pool of Aedes vexans nipponii Collected in the Republic of Korea.

Mark Sanborn,Terry Klein,Heung-Chul Kim,Edward Asafo-Adjei,Richard Jarman,Jun Hang,Yu Yang,Katherine Figueroa,Christian Fung

doi:10.3390/v11030222

Abstract

Arboviruses continue to be a significant global health concern. The unbiased metagenomic analyses of mosquito-borne and mosquito-specific viruses are useful to understand viral diversity and for the surveillance of pathogens of medical and veterinary importance. Metagenomic analysis was conducted on 6368 mosquitoes (736 pools), covering 16 species from 18 locations throughout the Republic of Korea (ROK) in 2016. In this report, we describe three viruses detected in a single pool of Aedes vexans nipponii collected at Yongsan U.S. Army Garrison, located in a densely populated district of Seoul, the ROK. The three novel viruses, designated as Yongsan bunyavirus 1 (YBV1), Yongsan picorna-like virus 3 (YPLV3) and Yongsan sobemo-like virus 1 (YSLV1), share sequence and structural characteristics with members belonging to the family Bunyaviridae, order Picornavirales, and family Solemoviridae, with shared RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) amino acid identities of 40%, 42% and 86%, respectively. The real-time reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of 3493 Aedes vexans nipponii (257 pools) showed a high prevalence of YBV1 and YSLV1 viruses, which were present in 65% and 62% of tested pools, respectively. This study highlighted the utility of a metagenomic sequencing approach for arbovirus discovery and for a better understanding of the virome of potential medically relevant vectors.

Highlights

Mosquitoes have a worldwide distribution and vector species have been spreading with increasing speed in recent years due to environment and climate changes, massive global trade and international travel [1]
Global trade, urbanization, agriculture development and environmental changes, both stationary and naïve populations are at increased risk for emerging and reemerging diseases [39,40]
Arboviruses have been responsible for 30% of emerging diseases in recent years [41], making it important to broaden the surveillance of mosquitoes and other biting arthropods from the detection of a limited number of specific pathogens to a more comprehensive and discovery-orientated approach

Summary

Introduction

Mosquitoes have a worldwide distribution and vector species have been spreading with increasing speed in recent years due to environment and climate changes, massive global trade and international travel (http://vectormap.si.edu/index.htm) [1]. Viruses 2019, 11, 222 fever, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis and many others [3,4,5]. These geographically endemic diseases are responsible for enormous economic burdens and severe disturbances in both developed and underdeveloped regions, communities and patients and their families [2,6,7,8,9,10]. The unbiased metagenomic analysis of field-captured mosquitoes using advanced next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology has greatly facilitated the surveillance of known pathogens and has accelerated the discovery of novel agents, e.g., viruses, bacteria (e.g., Rickettsia and Borrelia spp.), protozoa (e.g., malaria) and fungi, that are associated with mosquitoes and are known and potential human or animal pathogens [11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. Further metagenomics analyses are necessary to better understand the diversity and abundance of mosquito-borne pathogens and novel agents to better assess the epidemiology of emerging and reemerging mosquito-borne pathogens [18]

Methods

Results

Conclusion