Infection and maintenance of insect-specific viruses in insects

在加拿大和全球，由昆虫传播的病毒引起的疾病威胁越来越大。由于气候和土地利用的变化，这个问题将继续存在。这项研究的长期目标是制造一个平台，以抑制昆虫传播病毒和其他病原体。一般来说，在昆虫中发现两种病毒：i)由昆虫传播的病毒，可导致人类、动物或植物患病，如西尼罗河病毒；ii)仅感染昆虫的病毒，称为昆虫特有病毒。一些昆虫特有的病毒可能对社会有益，因为它们可以防止昆虫感染或传播导致疾病的病毒。一组特定的昆虫特有的病毒可能是有用的，那就是新病毒。黑色病毒可以阻止有害病毒感染昆虫细胞，并在许多传播有害病毒的昆虫中发现。有可能故意用新病毒感染昆虫，以阻止有害病毒，但我们不知道昆虫如何感染新病毒，它们如何在昆虫种群中传播，或者它们是否对昆虫有任何有害影响。拟议的研究项目旨在回答三个问题。在昆虫体内，新病毒是否与其他昆虫特有的病毒竞争？新病毒是如何在昆虫间传播的？新病毒会导致昆虫患病吗？我们完全有能力回答这些问题，我们的实验将涉及蚊子细胞、不同蚊子物种的菌落、其他感染蚊子的病毒，以及分子生物学工具。我们将首先观察在存在其他病毒的情况下，新病毒是否可以感染蚊子细胞和蚊子，这一点很重要，因为野生昆虫通常会感染各种病毒。接下来，我们将测试新病毒是如何在蚊子中传播的，以及它们是否会在蚊子中引起疾病。重要的是要了解如何感染野生昆虫，以及新病毒是否会在种群中持续存在，因为它们没有对受感染的昆虫造成伤害。这些研究将为在野生昆虫种群中部署新病毒的战略奠定基础。他们将建立未来的研究机会，以确定新病毒是否以同样的方式感染其他昆虫，并可能阻止广泛的有害病毒。潜在的好处包括减少加拿大和世界各地人类、动物和植物的疾病。

There is an increased threat of disease caused by viruses transmitted by insects in Canada, and globally. This problem will continue because of changes in climate and land use. The long-term aim of this research is to produce a platform to inhibit insects from transmitting viruses and other pathogens. In general, two types of viruses are found in insects: i) viruses transmitted by insects that can cause disease in humans, animals or plants, like West Nile virus, and ii) viruses that only infect the insect, called insect-specific viruses. Some insect-specific viruses may be beneficial to society because they can prevent insects from being infected by or transmitting the viruses that cause disease. One particular group of insect-specific viruses that may be useful are called negeviruses. Negeviruses can block harmful viruses from infecting insect cells, and are found in many insects that transmit harmful viruses. There is the potential to intentionally infect insects with negeviruses in order to stop the harmful viruses, but we do not know how insects become infected with negeviruses, how they are spread in the insect population, or if they have any detrimental effects on insects. The proposed research project aims to answer three questions. Do negeviruses compete with other insect-specific viruses in the insects? How do negeviruses spread among insects? Do negeviruses cause disease in insects? We are well-equipped to answer these questions, and our experiments will involve mosquito cells, colonies of different mosquito species, other viruses that infect mosquitoes, and molecular biology tools. We will first see if negeviruses can infect mosquito cells and mosquitoes when other viruses are present, which is important because wild insects are often infected with various viruses. Next, we will test how negeviruses are spread amongst mosquitoes, and if they cause disease in mosquitoes. It will be important to learn how to infect wild insects and if negeviruses persist in the population because they leave the infected insect unharmed. These studies will underpin a strategy to deploy negeviruses in wild populations of insects. They will set up future research opportunities to determine if negeviruses infect other insects in the same way and potentially stop a wide range of harmful viruses. The potential benefits include reducing disease in humans, animals and plants in Canada and around the world.