How interactions shape mosquito viral communities in natural populations?

With the rise of next-generation sequencing (NGS) and metagenomics, the number of insect-specific viruses (ISVs) detected in mosquitoes has rapidly expanded. Rather than being isolated occurrences, ISVs appear to form stable viral communities, co-existing with each other, with arboviruses, and with mosquito-associated bacteria. Some ISVs seem to be part of a core virome, present across mosquito populations and persisting over evolutionary timescales.

Studying interactions at the cellular and organism levels gives us powerful insights into how viruses and microbiota interact within individual mosquitoes, but how do these interactions play out at the population level? Can we take what we know about mechanisms of interactions, such as viral competition, microbiota influence, or immune responses, and see their impact on virus evolution, transmission, and community structure in wild mosquito populations?

At the same time, field studies reveal new patterns in how viruses and microbes persist and spread—patterns that can lead us to discover new mechanisms of interaction when studied under controlled conditions.

• From Mechanisms to Populations:

Are the ISV-arbovirus interactions we observe in the lab shaping viral communities in nature, or are they overridden by environmental and host factors? Do microbiota-viral interactions influence vector competence in a way that translates to real-world transmission patterns?

• From Populations Back to Mechanisms:

Do natural ISV communities differ across mosquito species, environments, or geographic regions? Can unexpected patterns of co-infection in the field reveal novel virus-virus or virus-bacteria interactions? How do mosquito-virus co-evolutionary dynamics shape which viruses persist, compete, or dominate within a given population?