Konstantinidis Konstantinos, Bampali Maria, de Courcy Williams Michael, Dovrolis Nikolas, Gatzidou Elisavet, Papazilakis Pavlos, Nearchou Andreas, Veletza Stavroula, Karakasiliotis Ioannis
Department of Medicine, Laboratory of Biology, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece.
Evrofarma S.A., Didymoteicho, Greece.
Front Microbiol. 2022 Mar 7;13:802577. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.802577. eCollection 2022.
Biting midges () are vectors of arboviruses of both veterinary and medical importance. The surge of emerging and reemerging vector-borne diseases and their expansion in geographical areas affected by climate change has increased the importance of understanding their capacity to contribute to novel and emerging infectious diseases. The study of virome is the first step in the assessment of this potential. In this study, we analyzed the RNA virome of 10 species within the geographical area of Thrace in the southeastern part of Europe, a crossing point between Asia and Europe and important path of various arboviruses, utilizing the Ion Torrent next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform and a custom bioinformatics pipeline based on TRINITY assembler and alignment algorithms. The analysis of the RNA virome of 10 species resulted in the identification of the genomic signatures of 14 novel RNA viruses, including three fully assembled viruses and four segmented viruses with at least one segment fully assembled, most of which were significantly divergent from previously identified related viruses from the , , , , , , , , and families. Each species carried a species-specific set of viruses, some of which are related to viruses from other insect vectors in the same area, contributing to the idea of a virus-carrier web within the ecosystem. The identified viruses not only expand our current knowledge on the virome of but also set the basis of the genetic diversity of such viruses in the area of southeastern Europe. Furthermore, our study highlights that such metagenomic approaches should include as many species as possible of the local virus-carrier web that interact and share the virome of a geographical area.
蠓是具有兽医和医学重要性的虫媒病毒的传播媒介。新出现和重新出现的媒介传播疾病的激增及其在受气候变化影响的地理区域的扩展,增加了了解它们对新型和新出现传染病贡献能力的重要性。对蠓病毒组的研究是评估这种潜力的第一步。在本研究中,我们利用Ion Torrent下一代测序(NGS)平台和基于TRINITY组装器及比对算法的定制生物信息学流程,分析了欧洲东南部色雷斯地理区域内10种蠓的RNA病毒组,色雷斯是亚洲和欧洲的交汇点,也是各种虫媒病毒的重要传播路径。对10种蠓的RNA病毒组分析鉴定出14种新型RNA病毒的基因组特征,包括3种完全组装的病毒和4种分段病毒,其中至少有一个片段完全组装,大多数与先前从不同科鉴定出的相关病毒有显著差异。每种蠓携带一组物种特异性病毒,其中一些与同一地区其他昆虫媒介的病毒有关,这支持了生态系统内病毒载体网络的概念。鉴定出的病毒不仅扩展了我们目前对蠓病毒组的认识,也为东南欧地区此类病毒的遗传多样性奠定了基础。此外,我们的研究强调,这种宏基因组学方法应包括尽可能多的当地病毒载体网络物种,这些物种相互作用并共享一个地理区域的病毒组。