Martinez-Mercado Miguel A, de Jesús José Luis Duarte, Galindo-Sánchez Clara E, Saavedra-Flores Anaid, Carrillo-Tripp Jimena
Departamento de Biotecnología Marina, Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, Baja California (CICESE), Baja California 22860, Mexico.
Departamento de Microbiología, Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, Baja California (CICESE), Baja California 22860, Mexico.
J Gen Virol. 2022 Mar;103(3). doi: 10.1099/jgv.0.001717.
The vine mealybug, (Signoret, 1875), is the most important insect pest in growing areas of the grapevine L. in several countries, including Mexico. In Mexico, Baja California (B.C.) is the region with the highest production of L. grapes for industrial purposes. Recently, the diversity of viruses infecting insects only (insect-specific viruses) has been broadly explored to elucidate further ecological viral-host interactions in many insect species, which in some cases has resulted in the application of virus-based biological control agents for insect pests. However, a survey of the virome has not been done yet. In the present study, we pooled individuals collected through different vineyards of Ensenada, B.C., Mexico and analysed them by meta-transcriptomics. Novel nearly complete genomes of five RNA viruses were retrieved. These viruses were related to the and families, and to the and orders. A new isolate belonging to the family was also found. Phylogenetic analyses showed that these putative viral genomes group with viruses having hemipteran (including a mealybug species) or other insect hosts, or with viruses associated with insects. Our results suggest that the identified novel RNA viruses could be insect-specific viruses of . This work is the first insight into the virome; it guarantees further studies aimed to characterize those viruses with potential for application in biological control of this economically important insect.
葡萄粉蚧（Signoret，1875年）是包括墨西哥在内的几个国家葡萄种植区最重要的害虫。在墨西哥，下加利福尼亚州（B.C.）是用于工业目的的葡萄产量最高的地区。最近，人们广泛探索了仅感染昆虫的病毒（昆虫特异性病毒）的多样性，以进一步阐明许多昆虫物种中病毒与宿主之间的生态相互作用，在某些情况下，这导致了基于病毒的生物防治剂被应用于害虫防治。然而，尚未对葡萄粉蚧的病毒组进行调查。在本研究中，我们收集了从墨西哥下加利福尼亚州恩塞纳达不同葡萄园采集的葡萄粉蚧个体，并通过宏转录组学对其进行分析。获得了五种RNA病毒的新型近乎完整的基因组。这些病毒与双顺反子病毒科和番茄丛矮病毒科以及有尾噬菌体目和小RNA病毒目有关。还发现了一种属于双顺反子病毒科的新分离株。系统发育分析表明，这些推定的病毒基因组与具有半翅目（包括一种粉蚧物种）或其他昆虫宿主的病毒，或与与昆虫相关的病毒归为一类。我们的结果表明，鉴定出的新型RNA病毒可能是葡萄粉蚧的昆虫特异性病毒。这项工作是对葡萄粉蚧病毒组的首次深入研究；它保证了进一步的研究，旨在表征那些有潜力应用于这种经济上重要昆虫生物防治的病毒。
