PubMed · 2026-07-10
Researchers sampled winged aphids from 15 Alabama cotton fields and discovered three new viruses belonging to the iflavirus family, naming them after their rarity in the wild. The virome of cotton aphids turns out to be surprisingly diverse, varying by county, and these findings open new questions about how aphid-borne viruses might affect pest populations and crop health.
Three new iflavirus species were discovered in field-collected aphids: Iflavirus furtiva, Iflavirus obscurata, and Iflavirus rarivira, each with a fully sequenced single-ORF genome.
Virome composition differed across county-level samples, with 58 viral contigs assembled and 20 assigned to 7 known families including Dicistroviridae, Iflaviridae, and Mitoviridae.
Strand-specific RT-PCR confirmed active replication of two viruses (AgIV1 and AgIV2) in cotton aphids, and their non-monophyletic placement in the phylogeny suggests cross-species transmission among aphid hosts.
