A cross-species meta-transcriptomic analysis of viral infection-induced shifts in microbial transcript profiles across insects.

Abstract

Microbiome has co-evolved with insects over millions of years, establishing symbiotic relationships that influence their fitness and shape evolutionary trajectories. These long-term associations are shaped by the hosts ecology, diet, and physiology which determines microbial diversity. In turn, external stresses such as pathogenic infections can adversely affect the host microbiome, further compounding the effects of pathogenic infections on the host. Using a computational pipeline and publicly available transcriptomics datasets, we analyzed the effect of viral infections on transcript derived microbiome diversity and composition in various insects including Drosophila melanogaster, Acyrthosiphon pisum, Antheraea pernyi, and Culex pipiens. The meta-transcriptomic reanalysis provides an indirect but comprehensive comparison of infection-associated transcriptional microbiome changes across hosts with distinct life histories. Our study reveals that viral infections influence the host-associated microbial transcripts, leading to shifts in transcript-derived microbial profiles and offering insights into host-microbe dynamics. In Cx. pipiens, microbial transcript profiles remained relatively stable following RVFV exposure and were dominated by the bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia. Our study highlights viral infections as key drivers of infection-associated shifts in microbial profiles and suggests a potential association between Wolbachia dominance and transcriptional microbiome stability in insects, with age as a contributing factor in shaping microbial transcript profiles in Culex. This cross-species framework uncovers conserved and host-specific patterns of virus-microbiome interactions, expanding our understanding of microbial resilience mechanisms in insects.