Researchers investigate dynamic changes in mosquitoes and their viromes in Wuhan during 2020

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Sep 27 2021

Announcing a new article publication for Zoonoses journal. Researchers from Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Wuhan, China, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, Jinan University, Shenzhen, China and Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China consider dynamic surveillance of mosquitoes and their viromes in Wuhan during 2020.

Mosquitoes are medically important arthropod vectors that harbour a variety of viruses. Geography and climate are known to be associated with variations in mosquito density, species and viromes. The authors of this study investigated the dynamic changes in mosquito populations, species compositions and viromes in a regularly disinfected environment in Wuhan, China, during 2020.

A total of 2345 adult mosquitoes were collected. Culex mosquitoes were dominant in both urban regions (90.32%, 1538/1703) and the pig farm (54.98%, 353/642). In RT-qPCR screening, the prevalence of Banna virus was 15% and 3% in mosquitoes from the urban area and the pig farm, respectively, whereas no Japanese encephalitis virus was detected. Culex viromes showed dynamic changes during the collection period. Several mosquito-specific viruses, such as Culex flavivirus, Alphamesonivirus 1, Hubei mosquito virus 2 and Hubei mosquito virus 4, showed seasonal changes and unimodal increases or declines. Other mosquito-specific viruses, such as Wuhan mosquito virus 6, Hubei virga-like virus 2 and Zhejiang mosquito virus 3, were stable in all collected Culex and are potential members of the core viromes.

This study improves understanding of the dynamic composition of mosquito species and the viromes that they carry and provides useful information for guiding mosquito control and mosquito-borne disease prevention strategies.