Huang Lin, Liu Shunshuai, Chen Lu, Wang Fei, Ye Ping, Xia Luoyuan, Jiang Baogui, Tang Hao, Zhang Qingyu, Ruan Xiangdong, Chen Weijun, Jiang Jiafu
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China.
Front Microbiol. 2023 Jun 14;14:1179173. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1179173. eCollection 2023.
Tick-borne viruses (TBVs) pose a significant risk to the health of humans and other vertebrates. A class of multisegmented flavi-like viruses, Jingmen tick virus (JMTV) was first discovered in Rhipicephalus microplus ticks collected from Jingmen of Hubei Province, China in 2010. JMTV has been confirmed to have a relatively wide distribution in vectors and hosts and is associated with human diseases.
Parasitic and host-seeking ticks were collected in Wolong Nature Reserve, Sichuan Province. Total RNA was extracted and then enriched the viral RNA. The DNA library was constructed and then were sequenced with MGI High-throughput Sequencing Set (PE150). After the adaptor sequences,low-quality bases and host genome were removed, resulting reads classified as a virus were subsequently de novo assembled into contigs, which were then compared to the NT database. Those annotated under the kingdom virus were initially identified as potential virus-associated sequences. Phylogenetic and Reassortment analysis of sequences were performed using MEGA and SimPlot software, respectively.
Two host-seeking ticks and 17 ticks that fed on giant pandas and goats were collected. Through high-throughput sequencing, whole virus genomes were attained from four tick samples (PC-13, PC-16, PC-18, and PC-19) that shared 88.7-96.3% similarity with known JMTV. Phylogenetic tree showed that it was a novel JMTV-like virus, referred to as Sichuan tick virus, which also had the signals of reassortment with other JMTV strains, suggesting a cross-species transmission and co-infection of segmented flavi-like viruses among multiple tick hosts.
We discovered and confirmed one new Jingmen tick virus, Sichuan tick virus. Further investigation is required to determine the pathogenicity of Sichuan tick virus to humans and animals, as well as its epidemiological characteristics in nature.
蜱传病毒（TBV）对人类和其他脊椎动物的健康构成重大风险。荆门蜱病毒（JMTV）是一类多节段黄病毒样病毒，于2010年在中国湖北省荆门市采集的微小牛蜱中首次发现。已证实JMTV在媒介和宿主中分布相对广泛，并与人类疾病有关。
在四川省卧龙自然保护区采集寄生蜱和寻找宿主的蜱。提取总RNA，然后富集病毒RNA。构建DNA文库，然后用MGI高通量测序仪（PE150）进行测序。去除接头序列、低质量碱基和宿主基因组后，将分类为病毒的所得读数进行从头组装成重叠群，然后与NT数据库进行比较。最初将在病毒界下注释的那些序列鉴定为潜在的病毒相关序列。分别使用MEGA和SimPlot软件对序列进行系统发育和重配分析。
采集到两只寻找宿主的蜱以及17只吸食大熊猫和山羊血液的蜱。通过高通量测序，从四个蜱样本（PC-13、PC-16、PC-18和PC-19）中获得了完整病毒基因组，这些基因组与已知的JMTV具有88.7-96.3%的相似性。系统发育树显示它是一种新型的JMTV样病毒，称为四川蜱病毒，它也具有与其他JMTV毒株重配的信号，这表明多节段黄病毒样病毒在多个蜱宿主之间存在跨物种传播和共感染。
我们发现并确认了一种新的荆门蜱病毒，即四川蜱病毒。需要进一步研究以确定四川蜱病毒对人类和动物的致病性及其在自然界中的流行病学特征。
