The Multitudes of Mosquito Viruses and Their Impact on Arbovirus Disease Ecology

Introduction

The mosquito virome constitutes not only human pathogenic arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) but also mosquito-specific viruses, whose host range is restricted to the mosquito. While metagenomics studies have revealed the mosquito virome to be richly diverse and abundant, our knowledge of these viruses is mostly limited to genome sequence information, and we have little insight into their biology and interactions with the mosquito host.

Research Gaps

Importantly, the cellular and immunological mechanisms by which mosquitoes deal with multitudes of concurrent viral infections remain to be understood. Furthermore, mosquito-specific viruses have been reported to inhibit or enhance co-infecting arboviruses, leading to substantial interest in leveraging these viruses as a tool to influence the transmission of deadly human pathogenic arboviruses, such as dengue virus.

Project Overview

Through MULTITUDES, I will take the first steps in exploring the fundamental biology and ecology of mosquito-specific viruses and their virus-host interactions using established techniques from classical medical entomology to omics approaches. My hypothesis-driven aims are to:

1. Characterise the biological properties of mosquito-specific viruses.
2. Investigate the heritability and fitness cost of mosquito-specific viruses.
3. Examine the metabolic interactions between mosquito-specific viruses, arboviruses, and mosquito hosts.

Significance

Given that mosquito-specific viruses are an inextricable part of arbovirus disease ecology, the insights revealed during this project will contribute towards a deeper understanding of mosquito-borne disease transmission under the One Health concept. As such, the knowledge generated has the potential to identify opportunities for improved arbovirus transmission risk mapping and for the future development of virome modification-based biological control interventions against arbovirus transmission.