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Metagenomic Profiling of Viruses Associated with Rhipicephalus microplus Ticks in Yunnan Province, China

  • Research Article
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Virologica Sinica

Abstract

Ticks are well known as vectors of many viruses which usually do great harm to human and animal health. Yunnan Province, widely covered by flourishing vegetation and mainly relying on farming husbandry, is abundant with Rhipicephalus microplus ticks. Therefore, it is of great significance to characterize the viral profile present in R. microplus parasitizing on cattle in Yunnan Province. In this study, a total of 7387 R. microplus ticks were collected from cattle and buffalo in the northwest and southeast areas of Yunnan Province from 2015 to 2017. We investigated the virome of R. microplus using next-generation sequencing (NGS) and the prevalence of important identified viruses among tick groups by RT-PCR. It revealed the presence of diverse virus concerning chu-, rhabdo-, phlebo-, flavi- and parvo- viruses in Yunnan. These viruses consist of single-stranded, circular and segmented sense RNAs, showing a greatly diversity in genomic organization. Furthermore, continuous epidemiological survey among ticks reveals broad prevalence of three viruses (Yunnan mivirus 1, Wuhan tick vrius 1 and YN tick-associated phlebovirus 1) and two possible prevalent viruses including a flavivirus-like segmented virus (Jingmen tick virus) and a bovine hokovirus 2 in Yunnan. Serological investigation among cattle indicates that these identified viruses may be infectious to cattle and can elicit corresponding antibody. Our findings on R. microplus-associated viral community will contribute to the prevention of viral disease and tracking the viral evolution. Further analysis is needed to better elucidate the pathogenicity and natural circulation of these viruses.

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Aknowledgements

This work was jointly funded by the Scientific and Technological Basis Special Project grant (2013FY113500) from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81874274 and 81660558), the National Science and Technology Major Project on Important Infectious Diseases Prevention and Control (2018ZX10734-404), and the Yunnan Health Training Project of High Level Talents (L-2017027).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Virology and National Virus Resource Center, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Junming Shi, Shu Shen & Fei Deng

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Junming Shi

  3. Institute of Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health, Dali University, Dali, 671000, China

    Hui Wu & Yunzhi Zhang

  4. Xianning Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Xinanning, 437000, China

    Hui Wu

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  1. Junming Shi
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  2. Shu Shen
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  3. Hui Wu
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  4. Yunzhi Zhang
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  5. Fei Deng
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Contributions

SS, YZ and FD conceived and designed the experiments. JS, and HW performed the experiments. JS, SS and FD wrote the paper. YZ and FD finalized the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yunzhi Zhang or Fei Deng.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Animal and Human Rights

Collections of ticks and serum of cattles were approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Dali University. Human serum samples were collected from patients and healthy volunteers with informed consent. All the procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Animal Care and Ethics Committees of Wuhan institute of virology, CAS (Approval numbers WIVA01201601).

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Shi, J., Shen, S., Wu, H. et al. Metagenomic Profiling of Viruses Associated with Rhipicephalus microplus Ticks in Yunnan Province, China. Virol. Sin. 36, 623–635 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12250-020-00319-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12250-020-00319-x

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