Analyse van het viroom van vectormuggen en hun associatie met het transmissiepotentieel van pathogenetische arbovirussen

Viruses transmitted between animals and humans or among humans by insects or arachnids (such as mosquitoes) are referred to as arboviruses (arthropod-borne viruses). Mosquitoes are one of the most important invertebrate viral vectors and harbor a high diversity of viruses, as has been shown in many mosquito virome studies in recent years. Many known deadly viruses are transmitted to humans after the bite of a female mosquito taking a blood meal, such as Yellow fever virus, Dengue virus, Chikungunya virus, Japanese Encephalitis virus, and many more. Due to poor health and diagnostic infrastructure in many of the regions where these viruses are endemic, it is very likely that additional unknown disease causing viruses are also present. In addition, climate changes and human activities such as deforestation and frequent travel, may result in the emergence and rapid spread of novel viruses across different continents as has occurred for Zika virus.

By performing NGS with optimized NetoVIR protocol on field mosquito samples from the tropics, my PhD project aims to identify known and novel arboviruses, and describe the differences in virome profiles among different mosquito species. Furthermore, another aim is to explore the influence of deadly arbovirus infection on the mosquito virome through viral metagenomics analysis on experimentally infected mosquitoes.

This study will broaden our knowledge of mosquito-borne viruses and shed some light on the factors could shape the viral community in mosquitoes and alter their vector competence.