Laboratory of Insect Ecology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto 6068502, Japan.
Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University, Kyoto 6110011, Japan.
Viruses. 2022 Sep 30;14(10):2161. doi: 10.3390/v14102161.
The yellow crazy ant, is a widespread invasive ant that poses significant threats to local biodiversity. Yet, compared to other global invasive ant species such as the red imported fire ant () or the Argentine ant (), little is known about the diversity of RNA viruses in the yellow crazy ant. In the current study, we generated a transcriptomic database for . using a high throughput sequencing approach to identify new RNA viruses and characterize their genomes. Four virus species assigned to , two to , one to , and two unclassified viruses were identified. Detailed genomic characterization was carried out on the polycipivirus and revealed that this virus comprises 11,644 nucleotides with six open reading frames. Phylogenetic analysis and pairwise amino acid identity comparison classified this virus into the genus under , which is tentatively named " virus 3 (AgrV-3)". Evolutionary analysis showed that AgrV-3 possesses a high level of genetic diversity and elevated mutation rate, combined with the common presence of multiple viral strains within single worker individuals, suggesting AgrV-3 likely evolves following the quasispecies model. A subsequent field survey placed the viral pathogen "hotspot" of in the Southeast Asian region, a pattern consistent with the region being recognized as part of the ant's native range. Lastly, infection of multiple virus species seems prevalent across field colonies and may have been linked to the ant's social organization.
黄色疯蚁，是一种广泛分布的入侵蚂蚁，对当地生物多样性构成重大威胁。然而，与其他全球入侵蚂蚁物种（如红火蚁或阿根廷蚂蚁）相比，人们对黄色疯蚁中 RNA 病毒的多样性知之甚少。在当前的研究中，我们使用高通量测序方法为 生成了转录组数据库，以鉴定新的 RNA 病毒并表征它们的基因组。鉴定出了四种属于 、两种属于 、一种属于 以及两种未分类的 病毒。对多质体病毒进行了详细的基因组特征描述，发现该病毒由 11644 个核苷酸组成，具有六个开放阅读框。系统发育分析和氨基酸比对表明，该病毒属于 科下的 属，暂命名为“AgrV-3”。进化分析表明，AgrV-3具有高度的遗传多样性和较高的突变率，加上单个工蚁个体中常见的多种病毒株，表明 AgrV-3可能遵循准种模型进化。随后的实地调查将 的病毒病原体“热点”定位于东南亚地区，这一模式与该地区被认为是蚂蚁原生范围的一部分相一致。最后，多种病毒的感染在野外群体中似乎很普遍，这可能与蚂蚁的社会组织有关。
