Metagenomic analysis of individual mosquitos reveals the ecology of insect viruses.
Yuan-Fei PanHailong ZhaoQin-Yu GouPei-Bo ShiJun-Hua TianYun FengKun LiWei-Hong YangDe WuGuangpeng TangBing ZhangZirui RenShiqin PengGeng-Yan LuoShi-Jia LeGen-Yang XinJing WangXin HouMin-Wu PengJian-Bin KongXin-Xin ChenChun-Hui YangShi-Qiang MeiYu-Qi LiaoJing-Xia ChengJuan Wangnull ChaolemenYu-Hui WuJian-Bo WangTongqing AnXinyi HuangJohn-Sebastian EdenJun LiDeyin GuoGuodong LiangXin JinEdward C HolmesBo LiDaxi WangJunhua LiWei-Chen WuMang ShiPublished in: bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology (2023)
Mosquito transmitted viruses are responsible for an increasing burden of human disease. Despite this, little is known about the diversity and ecology of viruses within individual mosquito hosts. Using a meta-transcriptomic approach, we analysed the virome of 2,438 individual mosquitos (79 species), spanning ∼4000 km along latitudes and longitudes in China. From these data we identified 393 core viral species associated with mosquitos, including seven (putative) arbovirus species. We identified potential species and geographic hotspots of viral richness and arbovirus occurrence, and demonstrated that host phylogeny had a strong impact on the composition of individual mosquito viromes. Our data revealed a large number of viruses shared among mosquito species or genera, expanding our knowledge of host specificity of insect-associated viruses. We also detected multiple virus species that were widespread throughout the country, possibly facilitated by long-distance mosquito migrations. Together, our results greatly expand the known mosquito virome, linked the viral diversity at the scale of individual insects to that at a country-wide scale, and offered unique insights into the ecology of viruses of insect vectors.