Identification of super-infected Aedes triseriatus mosquitoes collected as eggs from the field and partial characterization of the infecting La Crosse viruses.

ABSTRACT:

Background

La Crosse virus (LACV) is a pathogenic arbovirus that is transovarially transmitted by Aedes triseriatus mosquitoes and overwinters in diapausing eggs. However, previous models predicted transovarial transmission (TOT) to be insufficient to maintain LACV in nature.

Results

To investigate this issue, we reared mosquitoes from field-collected eggs and assayed adults individually for LACV antigen, viral RNA by RT-PCR, and infectious virus. The mosquitoes had three distinct infection phenotypes: 1) super infected (SI+) mosquitoes contained infectious virus, large accumulations of viral antigen and RNA and comprised 17 of 17,825 (0.09%) of assayed mosquitoes, 2) infected mosquitoes (I+) contained no detectable infectious virus, lesser amounts of viral antigen and RNA,

SUBMITTER: Reese SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2873378 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature