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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Systematic Entomology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #420221
Research Project: Systematics of Acari and Hemiptera: Plant Pests, Predators, and Disease Vectors

Location: Systematic Entomology Laboratory

Title: Evidence for the replication of a plant rhabdovirus in its arthropod mite vector

Author
item KONDO, HIDEKI - Okayama University
item FUJITA, MIKI - Okayama University
item MARUYAMA, KAZUYUKI - Okayama University
item HYODO, KIWAMU - Okayama University
item TASSI, ALINE - Federal University Of Sao Paulo
item Ochoa, Ronald
item ANDIKA, IDA - Qingdao Agricultural University
item SUSUKI, NOBUHIRO - Okayama University

Submitted to: Virus Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/25/2024
Publication Date: 1/4/2025
Citation: Kondo, H., Fujita, M., Maruyama, K., Hyodo, K., Tassi, A.D., Ochoa, R., Andika, I.B., Susuki, N. 2025. Evidence for the replication of a plant rhabdovirus in its arthropod mite vector. Virus Research. 351(199522):1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virusres.2024.199522.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virusres.2024.199522

Interpretive Summary: The Brevipalpus californicus complex is an important species group of the false spider mites. It is important for the feeding damage that it causes to its host and it is also a vector of a nuclear citrus leprosis virus. Citrus leprosis is estimated to cause annual losses of up to US$60 million and acaricide costs of US$54 million for the vector control in the São Paulo region of Brazil. This paper will be important to researchers, control and quarantine programs, integrated pest management specialists, phytopathologist, citrus growers, ecologists, and persons involved in mite studies.

Technical Abstract: Plant viruses transmitted by insects with replication of the virus within the insect vectors are known as persistently replicative. However, it remains unclear whether such virus-vector relationships also occurs between plant viruses and other arthropod vectors such as mites. In this study, we investigated the replication of orchid fleck virus (OFV), a segmented plant rhabdovirus, within its mite vector (Brevipalpus californicus s.l.) using a next-generation sequencing approach. First, since the genome expression of OFV requires the transcription of polyadenylated mRNAs, we used polyadenylated RNA fractions extracted from the viruliferous mite samples and OFV-infected plant leaves for RNA-seq analysis. In the mite and plant datasets, a large number of sequence reads were aligned to genomic regions of OFV RNA1 and RNA2 corresponding to transcribed viral gene mRNAs. This includes the short polyadenylated transcripts originating from the leader and trailer regions at the ends of the viral genome, which are believed to play a crucial role in viral transcription/replication. In contrast, a low number of reads were mapped to the non-transcribed regions (gene junctions). These results suggested that OFV gene expression occurs both in mites and plants. Additionally, deep sequencing revealed the accumulation of OFV-derived small RNAs in mites, although their size profiles differ from those found in plants. Taken together, our results strongly suggest that OFV replicates within a mite vector and is targeted by the RNA-silencing mechanism