Open AccessIdentification of salivary gland escape barriers to western equine encephalitis virus in the natural vector, Culex tarsalis
Author(s) -
Charles B. Stauft,
Aaron T. Phillips,
Tony T. Wang,
Kenneth E. Olson
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0262967
Subject(s) - biology , virology , salivary gland , alphavirus , arbovirus , vector (molecular biology) , titer , saliva , infectivity , togaviridae , virus , culex , recombinant dna , encephalitis , gene , genetics , biochemistry , botany , larva
Herein we describe a previously uninvestigated salivary gland escape barrier (SEB) in Culex tarsalis mosquitoes infected with two different strains of Western equine encephalitis virus (WEEV). The WEEV strains were originally isolated either from mosquitoes (IMP181) or a human patient (McMillan). Both IMP181 and McMillan viruses were fully able to infect the salivary glands of Culex tarsalis after intrathoracic injection as determined by expression of mCherry fluorescent protein. IMP181, however, was better adapted to transmission as measured by virus titer in saliva as well as transmission rates in infected mosquitoes. We used chimeric recombinant WEEV strains to show that inclusion of IMP181-derived structural genes partially circumvents the SEB.