Metagenomic Analysis of Non-Apis Wild Insect Pollinators and Predators Shows Virus Threat to Their Survival

Abstract Background: Insect pollinators provide major pollination services for wild plants and crops, this is necessary for both agriculture and ecology, we should protect their population size and diversity as much as possible. Currently, we have known that the virus disease of honeybee can cause serious damage to bee colony, but we know little about the virus of other wild pollinating insects. Here we investigated the virus host wild insect pollinators as a reminder that they are facing virus threaten too.Methods: Transcriptome sequencing was used to investigate the viruses of Non-Apis insect pollinators and predators. Furthermore, host and replicability of several novel viruses that weakly related to honey bee viruses were determined by using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).Results: Three honey pathogenic virus, five viruses host insect and twenty-six novel viruses were detected. Seven novel viruses showed weakly similarity to honeybee pathogenic viruses and five of them were determined can be replicated their genomes in the corresponding host by detected complementary strands of viral genomes, suggests that they may be pathogenic to the corresponding host.Conclusion: So many novel viruses detected in wild insect pollinators and their predators indicates that we don’t have a clear understanding of the virus composition in pollinator insect and related species. The same living environment provides the conditions for virus cross infection, we should be alert to this situation in the protection of pollinating insects.