Virome of red imported fire ants by metagenomic analysis in Guangdong, southern China

Qiuxu Li; Yingjie Lian; Ketong Zhang; Jinchao Chen; Long Chen; Jiandong Wu; Yangyang Zhang; Minyi Chen; Weize Zhang; Mengke Lu; Jun Ma; Aiquan Bai

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2024.1479934

Virome of red imported fire ants by metagenomic analysis in Guangdong, southern China

Front Microbiol. 2024 Nov 8:15:1479934. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1479934. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Qiuxu Li^#¹, Yingjie Lian^#¹, Ketong Zhang^#², Jinchao Chen¹, Long Chen¹, Jiandong Wu¹, Yangyang Zhang¹, Minyi Chen¹, Weize Zhang¹, Mengke Lu¹, Jun Ma¹, Aiquan Bai¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Animal Science and Technology, Foshan University, Foshan, China.
² College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The red imported fire ant (RIFA) has made China its habitat for approximately 25 years, but few reports have described the species and amount of virus circulating in it. Researchers are currently exploring viruses associated with RIFAs as potential biological control agents against invasive ants. The present meta-transcriptome analysis revealed the virome of red imported fire ants in Guangdong, southern China, which included 17 viruses, including Solenopsis invicta virus 4-GD (SINV-4) and Guangdong Polycipiviridae ant virus 1 (GPAV1) in the Polycipiviridae family; Solenopsis invicta virus 1-GD (SINV-1), and Guangdong Dicistroviridae ant virus 2-3 (GDAV2-3) in the Dicistroviridae family; Guangdong Iflaviridae ant virus 4-9 (GIAV4-9) in the Iflaviridae family; Guangdong Parvoviridae ant virus 10 (GPAV10) in the Parvoviridae family; and Guangdong ant virus 11-15 (GAV11-15). A total of 15 novel viruses and 2 known viruses were identified in this study. These findings reveal the virome of red imported fire ants in Guangdong Province and present a different result from that of a similar study reported in the United States, providing more choices for potential classical biological control agents against red imported fire ants in China.

Keywords: RNAseq; metagenomic analysis; red imported fire ant; virome; virus.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded by the Guangdong Modern Agricultural Industry Technology System Innovation Team Construction Project 2023, grant number BKS209152, and the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation, grant number 2022A1515110357.