Anglia Ruskin Research Online (ARRO)
Browse

Hunting Drosophila viruses from wild populations: A novel isolation approach and characterisation of viruses

Download (2.93 MB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-08-30, 14:46 authored by Gaspar Bruner-Montero, Carlos M Luque, Cássia Siqueira Cesar, Shuai Dominique Ding, Jonathan P Day, Francis Michael Jiggins
Metagenomic studies have demonstrated that viruses are extremely diverse and abundant in insects, but the difficulty of isolating them means little is known about the biology of these newly discovered viruses. To overcome this challenge in Drosophila, we created a cell line that was more permissive to infection and detected novel viruses by the presence of double-stranded RNA. We demonstrate the utility of these tools by isolating La Jolla virus (LJV) and Newfield virus (NFV) from several wild Drosophila populations. These viruses have different potential host ranges, with distinct abilities to replicate in five Drosophila species. Similarly, in some species they cause high mortality and in others they are comparatively benign. In three species, NFV but not LJV caused large declines in female fecundity. This sterilization effect was associated with differences in tissue tropism, as NFV but not LJV was able to infect Drosophila melanogaster follicular epithelium and induce follicular degeneration in the ovary. We saw a similar effect in the invasive pest of fruit crops Drosophila suzukii, where oral infection with NFV caused reductions in the fecundity, suggesting it has potential as a biocontrol agent. In conclusion, a simple protocol allowed us to isolate new viruses and demonstrate that viruses identified by metagenomics have a large effect on the fitness of the model organism D. melanogaster and related species.

History

Refereed

  • Yes

Volume

19

Issue number

3

Page range

e1010883-e1010883

Publication title

PLOS Pathogens

ISSN

1553-7366

Publisher

Public Library of Science (PLoS)

Location

United States

Editors

McGraw EA

File version

  • Published version

Language

  • eng

Item sub-type

Journal Article

Media of output

Electronic-eCollection

Affiliated with

  • School of Life Sciences Outputs

Usage metrics

    ARU Outputs

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC