The Rich Inner World of Colorado Potato Beetles – a Metagenomic Survey of Viral Diversity in Public Data

Maria Starchevskaya¹, Yuri Vyatkin², Denis Antonets^3
1SRC VB Vector Rospotrebnadzor, Koltsovo, Russia, starchevskayamaria@mail.ru
²Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia; Novel Software Systems LLC, Novosibirsk, Russia, vyatkin@gmail.com
³SRC VB Vector Rospotrebnadzor, Koltsovo, Russia; Novel Software Systems LLC, Novosibirsk, Russia, antonec@yandex.ru

Abstract Recent metagenomic studies of various environments revealed an enormous number of viruses, with hundreds of previously unknown species and even new virus families, and thus greatly expanded our understanding of the virosphere. Investigations of insect virome will provide new insights into ecology and evolution of viruses and their hosts. Colorado potato beetle is one of the most serious insect pests feeding on Solanaceae plants. The Colorado potato beetle virome has not been studied yet and, as far as we know, our work is the first attempt to discover viral material in DNA- and RNA-Seq data of L. decemlineata. We also hope that identification of new viruses will help to extend the arsenal of biopesticides.