Non-retroviral Endogenous Viral Elements in Tephritid Fruit Flies Reveal Former Viral Infections Not Related to Known Circulating Viruses.

ABSTRACT: A wide variety of insect-specific non-retroviral RNA viruses specifically infect insects. During viral infection, fragments of viral sequences can integrate into the host genomes creating non-retroviral endogenous viral elements (nrEVEs). Although the exact function of nrEVEs is so far unknown, some studies suggest that nrEVEs may interfere with virus replication by producing PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) that recognize and degrade viral RNAs through sequence complementarity. In this article, we identified the nrEVEs repertoire of ten species within the dipteran family Tephritidae (true fruit flies), which are considered a major threat to agriculture worldwide. Our results suggest that each of these species contains nrEVEs, although in limited numbers, and that nrEVE integration may have

SUBMITTER: Hernandez-Pelegrin L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10689555 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature