Virus Prospecting in Crickets—Discovery and Strain Divergence of a Novel Iflavirus in Wild and Cultivated <i>Acheta domesticus</i>
Orthopteran insects have high reproductive rates leading to boom-bust population dynamics with high local densities that are ideal for short, episodic disease epidemics. Viruses are particularly well suited for such host population dynamics, due to their supreme ability to adapt to changing transmis...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-02-01
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| Series: | Viruses |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/13/3/364 |
| _version_ | 1797395240418541568 |
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| author | Joachim R. de Miranda Fredrik Granberg Piero Onorati Anna Jansson Åsa Berggren |
| author_facet | Joachim R. de Miranda Fredrik Granberg Piero Onorati Anna Jansson Åsa Berggren |
| author_sort | Joachim R. de Miranda |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Orthopteran insects have high reproductive rates leading to boom-bust population dynamics with high local densities that are ideal for short, episodic disease epidemics. Viruses are particularly well suited for such host population dynamics, due to their supreme ability to adapt to changing transmission criteria. However, very little is known about the viruses of Orthopteran insects. Since Orthopterans are increasingly reared commercially, for animal feed and human consumption, there is a risk that viruses naturally associated with these insects can adapt to commercial rearing conditions, and cause disease. We therefore explored the virome of the house cricket <i>Acheta domesticus</i>, which is both part of the natural Swedish landscape and reared commercially for the pet feed market. Only 1% of the faecal RNA and DNA from wild-caught <i>A. domesticus</i> consisted of viruses. These included both known and novel viruses associated with crickets/insects, their bacterial-fungal microbiome, or their plant food. Relatively abundant among these viral Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) was a novel Iflavirus, tentatively named Acheta domesticus Iflavirus (AdIV). Quantitative analyses showed that AdIV was also abundant in frass and insect samples from commercially reared crickets. Interestingly, the wild and commercial AdIV strains had short, extremely divergent variation hotspots throughout the genome, which may indicate specific adaptation to their hosts’ distinct rearing environments. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T00:31:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-88842e47f4eb485fb5e6d1d3eecce17e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1999-4915 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T00:31:33Z |
| publishDate | 2021-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Viruses |
| spelling | doaj.art-88842e47f4eb485fb5e6d1d3eecce17e2023-12-11T18:28:25ZengMDPI AGViruses1999-49152021-02-0113336410.3390/v13030364Virus Prospecting in Crickets—Discovery and Strain Divergence of a Novel Iflavirus in Wild and Cultivated <i>Acheta domesticus</i>Joachim R. de Miranda0Fredrik Granberg1Piero Onorati2Anna Jansson3Åsa Berggren4Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 756 51 Uppsala, SwedenDepartment of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 756 51 Uppsala, SwedenDepartment of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 756 51 Uppsala, SwedenDepartment of Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 756 51 Uppsala, SwedenDepartment of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 756 51 Uppsala, SwedenOrthopteran insects have high reproductive rates leading to boom-bust population dynamics with high local densities that are ideal for short, episodic disease epidemics. Viruses are particularly well suited for such host population dynamics, due to their supreme ability to adapt to changing transmission criteria. However, very little is known about the viruses of Orthopteran insects. Since Orthopterans are increasingly reared commercially, for animal feed and human consumption, there is a risk that viruses naturally associated with these insects can adapt to commercial rearing conditions, and cause disease. We therefore explored the virome of the house cricket <i>Acheta domesticus</i>, which is both part of the natural Swedish landscape and reared commercially for the pet feed market. Only 1% of the faecal RNA and DNA from wild-caught <i>A. domesticus</i> consisted of viruses. These included both known and novel viruses associated with crickets/insects, their bacterial-fungal microbiome, or their plant food. Relatively abundant among these viral Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) was a novel Iflavirus, tentatively named Acheta domesticus Iflavirus (AdIV). Quantitative analyses showed that AdIV was also abundant in frass and insect samples from commercially reared crickets. Interestingly, the wild and commercial AdIV strains had short, extremely divergent variation hotspots throughout the genome, which may indicate specific adaptation to their hosts’ distinct rearing environments.https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/13/3/364metagenomevirome<i>Acheta domesticus</i>cricketAcheta domesticus Iflavirusstrain evolution |
| spellingShingle | Joachim R. de Miranda Fredrik Granberg Piero Onorati Anna Jansson Åsa Berggren Virus Prospecting in Crickets—Discovery and Strain Divergence of a Novel Iflavirus in Wild and Cultivated <i>Acheta domesticus</i> Viruses metagenome virome <i>Acheta domesticus</i> cricket Acheta domesticus Iflavirus strain evolution |
| title | Virus Prospecting in Crickets—Discovery and Strain Divergence of a Novel Iflavirus in Wild and Cultivated <i>Acheta domesticus</i> |
| title_full | Virus Prospecting in Crickets—Discovery and Strain Divergence of a Novel Iflavirus in Wild and Cultivated <i>Acheta domesticus</i> |
| title_fullStr | Virus Prospecting in Crickets—Discovery and Strain Divergence of a Novel Iflavirus in Wild and Cultivated <i>Acheta domesticus</i> |
| title_full_unstemmed | Virus Prospecting in Crickets—Discovery and Strain Divergence of a Novel Iflavirus in Wild and Cultivated <i>Acheta domesticus</i> |
| title_short | Virus Prospecting in Crickets—Discovery and Strain Divergence of a Novel Iflavirus in Wild and Cultivated <i>Acheta domesticus</i> |
| title_sort | virus prospecting in crickets discovery and strain divergence of a novel iflavirus in wild and cultivated i acheta domesticus i |
| topic | metagenome virome <i>Acheta domesticus</i> cricket Acheta domesticus Iflavirus strain evolution |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/13/3/364 |
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