Microorganisms · Published 2026-08-05 · DOI 10.3390/microorganisms14081723
Vera Lucia Fonseca de Camargo-Neves, Antonio Charlys da Costa, Tatiana Maia de Oliveira Gonçalves, Lilian de Oliveira Guimarães, Roseane da Silva Couto, Marcos Anciete-Santos, Ramendra Pati Pandey, Vanessa Christe Helfstein, Karin Kirchgatter, Elcio Leal
This study investigated the RNA virome associated with the phlebotomine sand fly <i>Pintomyia fischeri</i> using a metatranscriptomic approach applied to the Meta29 library, composed of 21 specimens collected at the São Paulo Zoo, Brazil. Read-based taxonomic analysis revealed a diverse viral community composed of viruses associated with the families <i>Iflaviridae</i>, <i>Narnaviridae</i>, <i>Partitiviridae</i>, <i>Reoviridae</i>, <i>Solemoviridae</i>, <i>Tombusviridae</i>, <i>Totiviridae</i>, and <i>Tymoviridae</i>, in addition to highly abundant unclassified RNA viruses related to the ShiM 2016 group. Assembly and annotation analyses enabled the characterization of four viral RNA genomes associated with the families <i>Partitiviridae</i> (PfPartitiV-1a-SP, PfPartitiV-1b-SP, and PfPartitiV-2-SP) and <i>Narnaviridae</i> (PfNarnaV-1-SP). Sequence comparisons revealed low amino acid identity relative to currently available reference viral sequences, supporting the classification of these sequences as highly divergent and potentially novel viral lineages. Structural modeling of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) proteins identified the viral polymerase-specific catalytic motifs A, B, and C. Phylogenetic analyses further supported the evolutionary divergence of the identified viruses relative to currently described taxa. Overall, these findings expand current knowledge of viral RNA diversity associated with Neotropical sand flies and highlight the value of metatranscriptomic approaches for the detection and characterization of previously undescribed viruses associated with medically important insect vectors.
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Camargo-Neves, V., Costa, A., Gonçalves, T., et al. (2026). Highly Divergent Partiti-like and Narna-like Viral RNA Sequences Detected in Pintomyia fischeri from São Paulo, Brazil: An Exploratory Metatranscriptomic Report. Microorganisms. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms14081723