Adler Meaghan J, Martin McKayla M, Rozo-Lopez Paula, Parker Benjamin J
Department of Microbiology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2025 Sep 5;20(9):e0331239. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0331239. eCollection 2025.
Metatranscriptome sequencing has emerged as a powerful tool for uncovering viral diversity in insects and their associated microbes. To explore viruses linked to the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum), we performed metatranscriptome sequencing on field-collected samples. In addition to several known plant viruses, we assembled the genome of a new virus homologous to species in the family Mitoviridae, which are positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses that encode only an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and typically replicate in mitochondria. Given the frequent association of mitoviruses with fungi and the presence of entomopathogenic fungal reads in our dataset, we conducted 18S amplicon sequencing and PCR screening on individual aphids. These analyses identified two fungal entomopathogens and uncovered an association between the mitovirus and Zoophthora radicans, a generalist aphid pathogen. Our findings shed light on the hidden microbial diversity in natural pea aphid populations and emphasize the utility of metatranscriptomics in identifying novel virus-host associations.
宏转录组测序已成为揭示昆虫及其相关微生物中病毒多样性的有力工具。为了探索与豌豆蚜（Acyrthosiphon pisum）相关的病毒，我们对野外采集的样本进行了宏转录组测序。除了几种已知的植物病毒外，我们还组装了一种与线粒体病毒科物种同源的新病毒的基因组，线粒体病毒科是正义单链RNA病毒，仅编码一种依赖RNA的RNA聚合酶，通常在线粒体中复制。鉴于线粒体病毒与真菌的频繁关联以及我们数据集中存在昆虫病原真菌读数，我们对单个蚜虫进行了18S扩增子测序和PCR筛选。这些分析鉴定出两种昆虫病原真菌，并揭示了线粒体病毒与广食性蚜虫病原体根虫瘟霉（Zoophthora radicans）之间的关联。我们的研究结果揭示了天然豌豆蚜种群中隐藏的微生物多样性，并强调了宏转录组学在识别新型病毒-宿主关联中的作用。
