In April 2023, following the annual International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) ratification vote on newly proposed taxa, the phylum Negarnaviricota was amended and emended. The phylum was expanded by one new family, 14 new genera, and 140 new species. Two genera and 538 species were renamed. One species was moved, and four were abolished. This article presents the updated taxonomy of Negarnaviricota as now accepted by the ICTV.

Large-scale COVID-19 vaccinations are currently underway in many countries in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we report, besides generation of neutralizing antibodies, consistent alterations in hemoglobin A1c, serum sodium and potassium levels, coagulation profiles, and renal functions in healthy volunteers after vaccination with an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Similar changes had also been reported in COVID-19 patients, suggesting that vaccination mimicked an infection. Single-cell mRNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) before and 28 days after the first inoculation also revealed consistent alterations in gene expression of many different immune cell types. Reduction of CD8⁺ T cells and increase in classic monocyte contents were exemplary. Moreover, scRNA-seq revealed increased NF-κB signaling and reduced type I interferon responses, which were confirmed by biological assays and also had been reported to occur after SARS-CoV-2 infection with aggravating symptoms. Altogether, our study recommends additional caution when vaccinating people with pre-existing clinical conditions, including diabetes, electrolyte imbalances, renal dysfunction, and coagulation disorders.

Besides mosquitoes, ticks are regarded as the primary source of vector-borne infectious diseases. Indeed, a wide variety of severe infectious human diseases, including those involving viruses, are transmitted by ticks in many parts of the world. To date, there are no published reports on the use of next-generation sequencing for studying viral diversity in ticks or discovering new viruses in these arthropods from China. Here, Ion-torrent sequencing was used to investigate the presence of viruses in three Rhipicephalus spp. tick pools (NY-11, NY-13, and MM-13) collected from the Menglian district of Yunnan, China. The sequencing run resulted in 3,641,088, 3,106,733, and 3,871,851 reads in each tick pool after trimming. Reads and assembled contiguous sequences (contigs) were subject to basic local alignment search tool analysis against the GenBank database. Large numbers of reads and contigs related to known viral sequences corresponding to a broad range of viral families were identified. Some of the sequences originated from viruses that have not been described previously in ticks. Our findings will facilitate better understanding of the tick virome, and add to our current knowledge of disease-causing viruses in ticks living under natural conditions.

Many blood-feeding arthropods are known vectors of viruses that are a source of unprecedented global health concern. Mosquitoes are an integral part of these arthropod vectors. Advancements in next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics has expanded our knowledge on the richness of viruses harbored by arthropods. In the present study, we applied a metagenomic approach to determine the intercontinental virome diversity of Culex quinquefasciatus and Culex tritaeniorhynchus in Kwale, Kenya and provinces of Hubei and Yunnan in China. Our results showed that viromes from the three locations were strikingly diverse and comprised 30 virus families specific to vertebrates, invertebrates, plants, and protozoa as well as unclassified group of viruses. Though sampled at different times, both Kwale and Hubei mosquito viromes were dominated by vertebrate viruses, in contrast to the Yunnan mosquito virome, which was dominated by insect-specific viruses. However, each virome was unique in terms of virus proportions partly influenced by type of ingested meals (blood, nectar, plant sap, environment substrates). The dominant vertebrate virus family in the Kwale virome was Papillomaviridae (57%) while in Hubei it was Herpesviridae (30%) and the Yunnan virome was dominated by an unclassified viruses group (27%). Given that insect-specific viruses occur naturally in their hosts, they should be the basis for defining the viromes. Hence, the dominant insect-specific viruses in Kwale, Hubei, and Yunnan were Baculoviridae, Nimaviridae and Iflaviridae, respectively. Our study is preliminary but contributes to growing and much needed knowledge, as mosquito viromes could be manipulated to prevent and control pathogenic arboviruses.

Our study revealed that the virome was very stable across all developmental stages of both lab-derived and field-collected Aedes albopictus . The data representing the core virome in lab A. albopictus proved the vertical transmission route of these viruses, forming a “vertically transmitted core virome.” Field mosquitoes also contained this stable vertically transmitted core virome as well as additional viruses, which probably represented “environment-derived core virome” and which therefore were less stable over time and geography. By further screening publicly available SRA viral metagenomic data sets from mosquitoes belonging to the genus Aedes , some of the identified core ISVs were shown to be present in the majority of SRAs, such as Phasi Charoen-like phasivirus and Guadeloupe mosquito virus. How these core ISVs influence the biology of the mosquito host and arbovirus infection and evolution deserves to be further explored.

Mosquitoes are classified into approximately 3500 species and further grouped into 41 genera. Epidemiologically, they are considered to be among the most important disease vectors in the world and they can harbor a wide variety of viruses. Several mosquito viruses are considered to be of significant medical importance and can cause serious public health issues throughout the world. Such viruses are Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), dengue virus (DENV), chikungunya virus (CHIKV), and Zika virus (ZIKV). Others are the newly recognized mosquito viruses such as Banna virus (BAV) and Yunnan orbivirus (YNOV) with unclear medical significance. The remaining mosquito viruses are those that naturally infect mosquitoes but do not appear to infect humans or other vertebrates. With the continuous development and improvement of mosquito and mosquito-associated virus surveillance systems in China, many novel mosquito-associated viruses have been discovered in recent years. This review aims to systematically outline the history, characteristics, distribution, and/or current epidemic status of mosquito-associated viruses in China.