Vanmechelen Bert, Merino Michelle, Vergote Valentijn, Laenen Lies, Thijssen Marijn, Martí-Carreras Joan, Claerebout Edwin, Maes Piet
Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Laboratory of Clinical and Epidemiological Virology, Rega Institute for Medical Research, KU Leuven-University of Leuven, Herestraat 49, Box 1040, Leuven BE3000, Belgium.
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Laboratory of Parasitology, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133-D13, Merelbeke BE9820, Belgium.
Virus Evol. 2021 Jul 12;7(2):veab066. doi: 10.1093/ve/veab066. eCollection 2021.
Recent metagenomics studies have revealed several tick species to host a variety of previously undiscovered RNA viruses. , which is known to be a vector for many viral, bacterial, and protozoan pathogens, is the most prevalent tick species in Europe. For this study, we decided to investigate the virosphere of Belgian ticks. High-throughput sequencing of tick pools collected from six different sampling sites revealed the presence of viruses belonging to many different viral orders and families, including , , and . Of particular interest was the detection of several new reoviruses, two of which cluster together with members of the genus . This includes a new strain of Eyach virus, a known causative agent of tick-borne encephalitis. All genome segments of this new strain are highly similar to those of previously published Eyach virus genomes, except for the fourth segment, encoding VP4, which is markedly more dissimilar, potentially indicating the occurrence of a genetic reassortment. Further polymerase chain reaction-based screening of over 230 tick pools for 14 selected viruses showed that most viruses could be found in all six sampling sites, indicating the wide spread of these viruses throughout the Belgian tick population. Taken together, these results illustrate the role of ticks as important virus reservoirs, highlighting the need for adequate tick control measures.
最近的宏基因组学研究表明，几种蜱虫携带多种以前未被发现的RNA病毒。蜱虫是欧洲最常见的蜱种，已知是许多病毒、细菌和原生动物病原体的传播媒介。在本研究中，我们决定调查比利时蜱虫的病毒圈。对从六个不同采样点收集的蜱虫样本进行高通量测序，发现了属于许多不同病毒目和科的病毒，包括[具体病毒名称1]、[具体病毒名称2]和[具体病毒名称3]。特别令人感兴趣的是检测到几种新的呼肠孤病毒，其中两种与[病毒属名称]的成员聚集在一起。这包括一种新的埃亚赫病毒株，它是已知的蜱传脑炎病原体。除了编码VP4的第四片段明显不同外，这种新毒株的所有基因组片段与之前发表的埃亚赫病毒基因组高度相似，这可能表明发生了基因重配。基于聚合酶链反应对超过230个蜱虫样本进行的针对14种选定病毒的进一步筛查表明，大多数病毒在所有六个采样点都能找到，这表明这些病毒在比利时蜱虫种群中广泛传播。综上所述，这些结果说明了蜱虫作为重要病毒宿主的作用，凸显了采取适当蜱虫控制措施的必要性。
