biostudies-literatureNi XBNational Natural Science Foundation of China162-173https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC9816062biostudies-literatureUnknown8(1)The increasing prevalence and expanding distribution of tick-borne viruses globally have raised health concerns, but the full repertoire of the tick virome has not been assessed. We sequenced the meta-transcriptomes of 31 different tick species in the Ixodidae and Argasidae families from across mainland China, and identified 724 RNA viruses with distinctive virome compositions among genera. A total of 1,801 assembled and complete or nearly complete viral genomes revealed an extensive diversity of genome architectures of tick-associated viruses, highlighting ticks as a reservoir of RNA viruses. We examined the phylogenies of different virus families to investigate virome evolution and found that the most diverse tick-associated viruses are positive-strand RNA virus families that demonstrateNature microbiologyMetavirome of 31 tick species provides a compendium of 1,801 RNA virus genomes.PMC9816062816210053192208782103897Zhou YHQin QWu YQZhang JCao WCShen SJDu CHTick Genome and Microbiome Consortium (TIGMIC)Shao HZHuang EJDing SJShum MHPan YSLam TTZhao LRuan XDJia NWang QZhu JGQue TCLiu JYWang XZhan LHan XHGuo WBXia LYChang QCYe RZJiang JFChen QQShi WQCui XMSun YZhu DYGong CWNi XBZhang MZQu JLLiu GYDu LFMa JMa KOong XYWang CCLi LJfalseMetavirome of 31 tick species provides a compendium of 1,801 RNA virus genomes.The increasing prevalence and expanding distribution of tick-borne viruses globally have raised health concerns, but the full repertoire of the tick virome has not been assessed. We sequenced the meta-transcriptomes of 31 different tick species in the Ixodidae and Argasidae families from across mainland China, and identified 724 RNA viruses with distinctive virome compositions among genera. A total of 1,801 assembled and complete or nearly complete viral genomes revealed an extensive diversity of genome architectures of tick-associated viruses, highlighting ticks as a reservoir of RNA viruses. We examined the phylogenies of different virus families to investigate virome evolution and found that the most diverse tick-associated viruses are positive-strand RNA virus families that demonstrate2023-01-01T00:00:00Z2023 Jan2026-05-29T21:09:03.401Z2024-12-04T02:35:32.522ZS-EPMC98160623660451010.1038/s41564-022-01275-w