Entomophthovirus: an insect-derived iflavirus that infects a behavior-manipulating fungal pathogen of dipterans.

ABSTRACT: We report a virus infecting Entomophthora muscae, a behavior-manipulating fungal pathogen of dipterans. The virus, which we name Berkeley Entomophthovirus, is a positive-strand RNA virus in the iflaviridae family of capsid-forming viruses, which are mostly known to infect insects. The viral RNA is expressed at high levels in fungal cells in vitro and during in vivo infections of Drosophila melanogaster, and virus particles can be seen intracellularly in E. muscae. This virus, of which we find two closely related variants in our culture of E. muscae, is also closely related to three different viruses reported from metagenomic surveys, two of which were isolated from wild dipterans, and a third isolated from wild ticks. By analyzing sequencing data from these earlier reports, we find abundan

SUBMITTER: Coyle MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11457076 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature