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Potter-Birriel JM, Pollio AR, Knott BD, Chunashvili T, Fung CK, Conte MA, Reinbold-Wasson DD, Hang J. Metagenomics analysis reveals presence of the Merida-like virus in Georgia. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1258810. [PMID: 37901812 PMCID: PMC10602647 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1258810] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2023] [Accepted: 09/27/2023] [Indexed: 10/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Arbovirus surveillance is fundamental for the discovery of novel viruses and prevention of febrile vector-borne illnesses. Vector-borne pathogens can rapidly expand and adapt in new geographic and environmental conditions. In this study, metagenomic surveillance was conducted to identify novel viruses in the Country of Georgia. A total of 521 mosquitoes were captured near a military training facility and pooled from species Culex pipiens (Linnaeus) (87%) and Aedes albopictus (Skuse) (13%). We decided to further analyze the Culex pipiens mosquitoes, due to the more extensive number of samples collected. Our approach was to utilize an unbiased total RNA-seq for pathogen discovery in order to explore the mosquito virome. The viral reads from this analysis were mostly aligned to Insect-specific viruses from two main families, the Iflaviridae; a positive-stranded RNA virus and the Rhabdoviridae; a negative- and single-stranded RNA virus. Our pathogen discovery analysis revealed viral reads aligning to the Merida-like virus Turkey (MERDLVT) strain among the Rhabdoviridae. To further validate this result, we conducted a BLAST sequence comparison analysis of our samples with the MERDLVT strain. Our positive samples aligned to the MERDLVT strain with 96-100% sequence identity and 99.7-100% sequence coverage. A bootstrapped maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree was used to evaluate the evolutionary relationships among these positive pooled specimens with the (MERDLVT) strain. The Georgia samples clustered most closely with two strains from Turkey, the Merida-like virus KE-2017a isolate 139-1-21 and the Merida-like virus Turkey isolate P431. Collectively, these results show the presence of the MERDLVT strain in Georgia.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Adam R. Pollio
- Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, United States
| | - Brian D. Knott
- U.S. Army Medical Research Directorate – Georgia (USAMRD-G), Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Tbilisi, Georgia
| | - Tamar Chunashvili
- U.S. Army Medical Research Directorate – Georgia (USAMRD-G), Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Tbilisi, Georgia
| | - Christian K. Fung
- Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, United States
| | - Matthew A. Conte
- Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, United States
| | - Drew D. Reinbold-Wasson
- U.S. Army Medical Research Directorate – Georgia (USAMRD-G), Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Tbilisi, Georgia
| | - Jun Hang
- Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, United States
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Pollio AR, Jiang J, Lee SS, Gandhi JS, Knott BD, Chunashvili T, Conte MA, Walls SD, Hulseberg CE, Farris CM, Reinbold-Wasson DD, Hang J. Discovery of Rickettsia spp. in mosquitoes collected in Georgia by metagenomics analysis and molecular characterization. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:961090. [PMID: 36160204 PMCID: PMC9493313 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.961090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2022] [Accepted: 07/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Arthropods have a broad and expanding worldwide presence and can transmit a variety of viral, bacterial, and parasite pathogens. A number of Rickettsia and Orientia species associated with ticks, fleas, lice, and mites have been detected in, or isolated from, patients with febrile illness and/or animal reservoirs throughout the world. Mosquitoes are not currently considered vectors for Rickettsia spp. pathogens to humans or to animals. In this study, we conducted a random metagenome next-generation sequencing (NGS) of 475 pools of Aedes, Culex, and Culiseta species of mosquitoes collected in Georgia from 2018 to 2019, identifying rickettsial gene sequences in 33 pools of mosquitoes. We further confirmed the findings of the Rickettsia by genus-specific quantitative PCR (qPCR) and multi-locus sequence typing (MLST). The NGS and MLST results indicate that Rickettsia spp. are closely related to Rickettsia bellii, which is not known to be pathogenic in humans. The results, together with other reports of Rickettsia spp. in mosquitoes and the susceptibility and transmissibility experiments, suggest that mosquitoes may play a role in the transmission cycle of Rickettsia spp.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam R. Pollio
- Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, United States
| | - Ju Jiang
- Naval Medical Research Center, Silver Spring, MD, United States
- Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc., Bethesda, MD, United States
| | - Sam S. Lee
- Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, United States
| | - Jaykumar S. Gandhi
- Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, United States
| | - Brian D. Knott
- U.S. Army Medical Research Directorate - Georgia (USAMRD-G), Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Tbilisi, Georgia
| | - Tamar Chunashvili
- U.S. Army Medical Research Directorate - Georgia (USAMRD-G), Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Tbilisi, Georgia
| | - Matthew A. Conte
- Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, United States
| | - Shannon D. Walls
- U.S. Army Medical Research Directorate - Georgia (USAMRD-G), Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Tbilisi, Georgia
| | - Christine E. Hulseberg
- U.S. Army Medical Research Directorate - Georgia (USAMRD-G), Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Tbilisi, Georgia
| | | | - Drew D. Reinbold-Wasson
- U.S. Army Medical Research Directorate - Georgia (USAMRD-G), Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Tbilisi, Georgia
| | - Jun Hang
- Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, United States
- *Correspondence: Jun Hang,
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