Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #246268
Title: Data mining cDNAs reveals three new single stranded RNA viruses in Nasonia (Hymenopetera:Pteromalidae)

Author
item OLIVEIRA, DCSG - University Of Rochester
item Hunter, Wayne
item NG, J - University Of Rochester
item DESJARDINS, CA - University Of Rochester
item Dang, Phat
item WERREN, J - University Of Rochester

Submitted to: Insect Molecular Biology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/28/2009
Publication Date: 1/15/2010
Citation: Oliveira, D., Hunter, W.B., Ng, J., Desjardins, C., Dang, P.M., Werren, J. 2010. Data mining cDNAs reveals three new single stranded RNA viruses in Nasonia (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae). Insect Molecular Biology. 19:99-107.

Interpretive Summary: Hymenopteran viruses may provide insights into colony collapse disorder in honey bees and other hymenopteran species. Three novel small small viruses were discovered during genomics research on the beneficial parasitoid of flies, Nasonia (Hymenoptera). Genomics provides a great deal of information on the biology and also the pathology of an organism. Nasonia attack fly pests and are mass reared as biological control agents. Discovery and identification of these viruses expands virus taxonomy and provides a virus/wasp model system which can be studied to better understand other diseases of hymenoptera such as colony collapse disorder in honey bees, which is also been associated with viral infections.

Technical Abstract: Hymenopteran viruses may provide insights into colony collapse disorder in honey bees and other insect species. Three novel small RNA viruses were discovered during the genomics effort for the beneficial parasitoid of flies in the genus Nasonia (Hymenoptera). Genomics provides a great deal of information on the biology and also the pathology of an organism. Mining the data from the cDNA libraries made from adult parasitoid wasps permits rapid identification of unknown micro organisms which live and reproduce inside these parasitoids. The virus genomes were determined to be positive-sense single-stranded RNA with a 3´ poly(A), which facilitates cloning from cDNAs. Two of the viruses which were named: NvitV-1 and NvitV-2, possess a RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase that associates them with the family Iflaviridae of the order Picornavirales. A third virus, NvitV-3, was determined to be most similar to the Nora virus from the fruit fly, Drosophila. A RT-PCR method developed for NvitV-1 indicates that it is a persistent, commensal infection of Nasonia parasitoids. These beneficial wasps which attack fly pests are mass reared as biological control agents, and as genetic research model organisms. Discovery and identification of these viruses, not only expands virus taxonomy, but now provides a virus/wasp model system which may aid efforts to understand other diseases of hymenoptera, such as colony collapse disorder in honey bees, which is also associated with a similar viral infection.