Rhabdoviral Endogenous Sequences Identified in the Leishmaniasis Vector Lutzomyia longipalpis Are Widespread in Sandflies from South America

TEMPONE, ANTONIO J.; ZEZZA-RAMALHO, MONIQUE DE SOUZA; BORELY, DANIEL; PITALUGA, ANDRÉ N.; BRAZIL, REGINALDO PEÇANHA; BRANDÃO-FILHO, SINVAL P.; PESSOA, FELIPE A. C.; BRUNO, RAFAELA V.; CARVALHO-COSTA, FILIPE A.; SALOMÓN, OSCAR D.; VOLF, PETR; BURLEIGH, BARBARA A.; AGUIAR, ERIC R. G. R.; TRAUB-CSEKO, YARA M.

Viruses

MDPI

Año: 2024 vol. 16

first_pagesettingsOrder Article ReprintsOpen AccessArticleRhabdoviral Endogenous Sequences Identified in the Leishmaniasis Vector Lutzomyia longipalpis Are Widespread in Sandflies from South Americaby Antonio J. Tempone 1,2,*,†ORCID,Monique de Souza Zezza-Ramalho 1,†,Daniel Borely 1ORCID,André N. Pitaluga 1,2,Reginaldo Peçanha Brazil 3,Sinval P. Brandão-Filho 4ORCID,Felipe A. C. Pessoa 5,Rafaela V. Bruno 2,6ORCID,Filipe A. Carvalho-Costa 7,Oscar D. Salomón 8,Petr Volf 9ORCID,Barbara A. Burleigh 10,Eric R. G. R. Aguiar 11,‡ORCID andYara M. Traub-Cseko 1,2,*ORCID1Laboratório de Biologia Molecular de Parasitas e Vetores, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil2Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia em Entomologia Molecular/CNPq, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil3Laboratório de Doenças Parasitárias, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil4Departamento de Imunologia, Instituto Aggeu Magalhães, Fiocruz, Recife 50740-465, PE, Brazil5Laboratório de Ecologia de Doenças Transmissíveis na Amazônia, Instituto Leônidas e Maria Deane, Fiocruz Amazônia, Manaus 69027-070, AM, Brazil6Laboratório de Biologia Molecular de Insetos, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil7Laboratório de Epidemiologia e Sistemática Molecular, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, RJ, Brazil8Instituto Nacional de Medicina Tropical, Ministerio de Salud de la Nación, ANLIS, Puerto Iguazu 3370, Misiones, Argentina9Department of Parasitology, Charles University, 12800 Prague, Czech Republic10Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health, Cambridge, MA 02115, USA add Show full affiliation list*Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.†These authors contributed equally to this work.‡Current address: Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Ilhéus 45662-900, BA, Brazil.Viruses 2024, 16(3), 395; https://doi.org/10.3390/v16030395Submission received: 23 January 2024 / Revised: 23 February 2024 / Accepted: 24 February 2024 / Published: 2 March 2024(This article belongs to the Section Insect Viruses)Downloadkeyboard_arrow_down Browse Figures Review Reports Versions NotesAbstractSandflies are known vectors of leishmaniasis. In the Old World, sandflies are also vectors of viruses while little is known about the capacity of New World insects to transmit viruses to humans. Here, we relate the identification of RNA sequences with homology to rhabdovirus nucleocapsids (NcPs) genes, initially in the Lutzomyia longipalpis LL5 cell lineage, named NcP1.1 and NcP2. The Rhabdoviridae family never retrotranscribes its RNA genome to DNA. The sequences here described were identified in cDNA and DNA from LL-5 cells and in adult insects indicating that they are transcribed endogenous viral elements (EVEs). The presence of NcP1.1 and NcP2 in the L. longipalpis genome was confirmed in silico. In addition to showing the genomic location of NcP1.1 and NcP2, we identified another rhabdoviral insertion named NcP1.2. Analysis of small RNA molecules derived from these sequences showed that NcP1.1 and NcP1.2 present a profile consistent with elements targeted by primary piRNAs, while NcP2 was restricted to the degradation profile. The presence of NcP1.1 and NcP2 was investigated in sandfly populations from South America and the Old World. These EVEs are shared by different sandfly populations in South America while none of the Old World species studied presented the insertions.