Chen Meng-Nan, Cai Xin-Yi, Ye Zhuang-Xin, Feng Ke-Hui, Ren Peng-Peng, Zhang Chuan-Xi, Chen Jian-Ping, Li Jun-Min, Mao Qianzhuo
State Key Laboratory for Quality and Safety of Agro-Products, Key Laboratory of Biotechnology in Plant Protection of MARA, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Green Plant Protection, Institute of Plant Virology, Ningbo University, 315211, Ningbo, China.
Southern Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Crop Breeding, Wenzhou Vocational College of Science and Technology (Wenzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences), 325000, Wenzhou, China.
Arch Virol. 2025 Feb 13;170(3):54. doi: 10.1007/s00705-025-06246-0.
Leaf beetles of the subfamily Chrysomelinae are not only herbivorous pests but also potential vectors of plant pathogens. Here, we describe a novel negative-sense virus named "Aulacophora lewisii nyamivirus 1" (ALNyV1), discovered in a leaf beetle (Aulacophora lewisii), a prevalent pest of cucurbitaceous vegetables. Using transcriptome sequencing and rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) techniques, the complete genome sequence of ALNyV1, spanning 10,339 nucleotides (excluding the polyA tail), was determined. A homology search and phylogenetic analysis indicated that ALNyV1 belongs to an unclassified clade in the family Nyamiviridae. This virus contains five open reading frames (ORFs) with typical conserved domains of nyamiviruses. The mean coverage of the ALNyV1 genome was 249, suggesting that active replication had occurred within the leaf beetle host. Furthermore, the virus was found to trigger a small-RNA interference response, with virus-derived small RNAs (vsiRNA) of ALNyV1 displaying a distinct pattern with 21 nucleotides being the most frequent length and exhibiting an A/U bias at the 5' end. This is the first detection of a negative-sense RNA virus in this leaf beetle species, providing important new information about the characteristics of viruses found in leaf beetles.
叶甲亚科的叶甲不仅是食草害虫，也是植物病原体的潜在传播媒介。在此，我们描述了一种在叶甲（黄守瓜）中发现的新型负链病毒，名为“黄守瓜尼亚病毒1”（ALNyV1），黄守瓜是葫芦科蔬菜的常见害虫。利用转录组测序和cDNA末端快速扩增（RACE）技术，确定了ALNyV1的完整基因组序列，全长10339个核苷酸（不包括polyA尾）。同源性搜索和系统发育分析表明，ALNyV1属于尼亚病毒科中一个未分类的分支。该病毒包含五个开放阅读框（ORF），具有尼亚病毒典型的保守结构域。ALNyV1基因组的平均覆盖率为249，表明在叶甲宿主内发生了活跃的复制。此外，发现该病毒引发了小RNA干扰反应，ALNyV1的病毒衍生小RNA（vsiRNA）呈现出独特的模式，21个核苷酸是最常见的长度，并且在5'端表现出A/U偏好。这是首次在这种叶甲物种中检测到负链RNA病毒，为叶甲中发现的病毒特征提供了重要的新信息。
