Shotgun Metagenomic Sequencing Reveals Virome Composition of Mosquitoes from a Transition Ecosystem of North-Northeast Brazil

Carine Fortes Aragão; Sandro Patroca da Silva; Bruna Laís Sena do Nascimento; Fábio Silva da Silva; Joaquim Pinto Nunes Neto; Valéria Cristina Soares Pinheiro; Ana Cecília Ribeiro Cruz

doi:10.3390/genes14071443

Shotgun Metagenomic Sequencing Reveals Virome Composition of Mosquitoes from a Transition Ecosystem of North-Northeast Brazil

Genes (Basel). 2023 Jul 14;14(7):1443. doi: 10.3390/genes14071443.

Authors

Carine Fortes Aragão¹, Sandro Patroca da Silva¹, Bruna Laís Sena do Nascimento¹, Fábio Silva da Silva¹, Joaquim Pinto Nunes Neto¹, Valéria Cristina Soares Pinheiro², Ana Cecília Ribeiro Cruz¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Arbovirology and Hemorrhagic Fevers, Evandro Chagas Institute, Secretariat of Health and Environment Surveillance, Ministry of Health, Ananindeua 67030-000, PA, Brazil.
² Laboratory of Medical Entomology, Stadual University of Maranhão, Caxias 65604-380, MA, Brazil.

Abstract

A wide diversity of pathogenic mosquito-borne viruses circulate in the Brazilian Amazon, and the intense deforestation can contribute to the spread of these viruses. In this context, this study aimed to investigate the viral diversity in mosquitoes of the genera Aedes, Culex, Haemagogus, and Sabethes from a transition area between the Amazon, Cerrado, and Caatinga biomes in Brazil. Metagenomic high-throughput sequencing was used to characterize the virome of 20 mosquito pools. A total of 15 virus-like genomes were identified, comprising species genomically close to insect-specific viruses of the families Iflaviridae, Metaviridae, Lispiviridae, Rhabdoviridae, Xinmoviridae, and Parvoviridae and species of plant viruses of the families Solemoviridae, Virgaviridae, and Partitiviridae. However, sequences of viruses associated with human and animal diseases were not detected. Most of the recovered genomes were divergent from those previously described. These findings reveal that there are a large number of unknown viruses to be explored in the middle-north of Brazil.

Keywords: Culicidae; metagenomic; metavirome; next-generation sequencing; viruses.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aedes*
Animals
Brazil
Culex*
Ecosystem
Humans
RNA Viruses*
Virome
Viruses*

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Programa Nacional de Cooperação Acadêmica na Amazônia, grant number 21/2018, and benefitedby Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), grant number 88887.761304/2022-00, and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), grant number 314522/2021-2. In addition, this research was supported by the Evandro Chagas Institute, Stadual University of Maranhão, and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico do Maranhão (FAPEMA) through the finance of laboratory infrastructure.