Highly divergent and diverse viral community infecting sylvatic mosquitoes from Northeast Brazil

Mosquitoes can transmit several pathogenic viruses to humans, but their natural viral community is also composed of a myriad of other viruses such as insect-specific viruses (ISVs) and those that infect symbiotic microorganisms. Besides a growing number of studies investigating the mosquito virome, the majority are focused on few urban species, and relatively little is known about the virome of sylvatic mosquitoes, particularly in high biodiverse biomes such as the Brazilian biomes. Here, we characterized the RNA virome of 10 sylvatic mosquito species from Atlantic forest remains at a sylvatic-urban interface in Northeast Brazil employing a metatranscriptomic approach. A total of 16 viral families were detected. The phylogenetic reconstructions of 14 viral families revealed that the majority of the sequences are putative ISVs. The phylogenetic positioning and, in most cases, the association with a high RNA-dependent RNA polymerase amino acid divergence from other known viruses suggests that the viruses characterized here represent at least 34 new viral species. Therefore, the sylvatic mosquito viral community is predominantly composed of highly divergent viruses highlighting the limited knowledge we still have about the natural virome of mosquitoes in general. Moreover, we found that none of the viruses recovered were shared between the species investigated, and only one showed high identity to a virus detected in a mosquito sampled in Peru, South America. These findings add further in-depth understanding about the interactions and coevolution between mosquitoes and viruses in natural environments.