State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, 20 Dong-Da Street, Fengtai District, Beijing 100071, PR China.
J Gen Virol. 2013 Mar;94(Pt 3):663-667. doi: 10.1099/vir.0.048231-0. Epub 2012 Nov 21.
Birnaviruses, including the genus Entomobirnavirus, are socio-economically important viruses. Currently, only Drosophila X virus has been formally assigned to the genus Entomobirnavirus, but two more viruses were recently isolated, Espirito Santo virus (ESV) and Culex Y virus. The host mosquito has been reported to carry many viruses, but seldom entomobirnaviruses. To discover potential pathogens in mosquitoes, we exploited small-RNAs high-throughput sequencing of three mosquito species caught in South China. A virus that genetically likes entomobirnavirus, Mosquito X virus (MXV), was identified from Anopheles sinensis and was 97% identical to ESV, which co-infects with Dengue virus (DENV). However, the absence of DENV in the A. sinensis suggested the independence of MXV infection from dengue co-infection. Our discovery complements prior research on entomobirnaviruses and proved that MXV may be widespread in mosquitoes on different continents. This work also highlights the applying of high-throughput sequencing of small RNAs to survey viruses carried by insect vectors.
双 RNA 病毒，包括昆虫双 RNA 病毒属，是具有重要社会经济意义的病毒。目前，仅有果蝇 X 病毒被正式归入昆虫双 RNA 病毒属，但最近又分离到了两种病毒，即圣埃斯皮里图病毒（ESV）和库蚊 Y 病毒。据报道，蚊子携带许多病毒，但很少携带昆虫双 RNA 病毒。为了发现蚊子中的潜在病原体，我们利用高通量测序技术对在中国南方捕获的三种蚊子进行了小 RNA 测序。从中华按蚊中鉴定出一种与昆虫双 RNA 病毒亲缘关系较近的病毒，即蚊虫 X 病毒（MXV），它与黄病毒（DENV）共同感染的 ESV 同源性为 97%。然而，中华按蚊中不存在 DENV 表明 MXV 感染与登革热的共同感染是相互独立的。我们的发现补充了先前关于昆虫双 RNA 病毒的研究，并证实 MXV 可能广泛存在于不同大陆的蚊子中。这项工作还强调了利用高通量测序小 RNA 技术来调查昆虫媒介携带的病毒。
