Natural invertebrate hosts of iridoviruses (Iridoviridae)

Abstract

Invertebrate iridescent viruses (IIVs) are icosahedral DNA viruses that infect invertebrates, mainly insects and terrestrial isopods, in damp and aquatic habitats. Exhaustive searches of databases resulted in the identification of 79 articles reporting 108 invertebrate species naturally infected by confirmed or putative iridoviruses. Of these, 103 (95%) were arthropods and the remainder were molluscs, an annelid worm and a nematode. Nine species were from marine habitats. Of the 99 non-marine species, 49 were from terrestrial habitats and 50 were aquatic, especially the aquatic stages of Diptera (44 species). The abundance of records from species of Aedes,Ochlerotatus and Psorophora contrasts markedly with a paucity of records from species of Anopheles,Culex and Culiseta. Records from terrestrial isopods are numerous (19 species), although the diversity of IIVs that infect them is mostly unstudied. IIV infections have been reported from every continent, except Antarctica, but there are few records from Africa, southern Asia and Latin America. Most reports describe patent IIV infections as rare whereas inapparent (covert) infection may be common in certain species. The relationship between particle size and iridescent colour of the host is found to be consistent with optical theory in the great majority of cases. Only 24 reported IIVs from insect hosts have partial characterization data and only two have been subjected to complete genome sequencing. I show that the rate of publication on IIVs has slowed from 1990 to the present, and I draw a number of conclusions and suggestions from the host list and make recommendations for future research efforts.