Effect of AlbB on a positive-sense RNA negev-like virus: a novel virus persistently infecting mosquitoes and cells.

The mosquito is the primary vector of several medically important arboviruses. The endosymbiotic bacterium, , has emerged as a means of blocking transmission of arboviruses such as dengue and Zika viruses. One strain that has shown potential in field trials is AlbB, a naturally occurring strain of the Asian tiger mosquito . When transinfected into , AlbB exhibits strong virus inhibition. In addition to modulating arboviruses, also modulates some insect-specific viruses. Here, we explored the effect of on the virome of the cell line Aa23 naturally infected with AlbB and also a stably transinfected recipient cell line (Aag2.AlbB). RNA sequencing and bioinformatic analysis on both cell lines revealed an 11 kb genome of a single-stranded positive-sense RNA negev-like virus related to the recently proposed negevirus taxon. We denoted this novel virus as Aedes albopictus negev-like virus (AalNLV). Tetracycline clearance of from Aa23 cells did not significantly affect AalNLV levels, while in Aag2.AlbB cells, a significant increase in virus genome RNA copies was observed. We further investigated the inhibitory effect of AlbB on AalNLV and another positive-sense RNA virus, cell fusing agent virus, which is present in Aag2 cells and known to be suppressed by AlbB suppressed both viruses, with the effect on AalNLV being more striking. The findings from this study further supplement our understanding of the complex interaction between , host and virome.