Nonretroviral integrated RNA viruses in arthropod vectors: an occasional event or something more?

Abstract

With few exceptions, all arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) are nonretroviral RNA viruses (NRVs). Despite NRVs do not encode reverse transcriptases and integrases, NRVs-DNA fragments are detected in mosquito cells and mosquitoes at early stages of infection as episomal DNA forms. Additionally, next generation sequencing and bioinformatics analyses have convincingly shown NRVs-vDNA integrated in vector genomes. We hypothesize vDNA role may be linked to host immunity and viral persistence. Key questions remain about nonretroviral integrated RNA virus sequences (NIRVS) in mosquitoes such as what is driving vDNA synthesis from NRVs, how does integration occur and what is their biological function. Here we review current knowledge about NIRVS highlighting connections with host immunity and virus-vector co-evolution and we suggest directions for future research.