PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Cory Henderson AU - Marco Brustolin AU - Shivanand Hegde AU - Grant L. Hughes AU - Christina Bergey AU - Jason L. Rasgon TI - Mayaro Virus Infection Elicits an Innate Immune Response and Represses Autophagy in <em>Anopheles stephensi</em> AID - 10.1101/2020.11.15.383596 DP - 2021 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 2020.11.15.383596 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/01/21/2020.11.15.383596.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/01/21/2020.11.15.383596.full AB - Mayaro virus (MAYV) is an arboviral pathogen in the genus Alphavirus that is circulating in South America with potential to spread to naïve regions. MAYV is also one of the few viruses with the ability to be transmitted by mosquitoes in the genus Anopheles in addition to the typical arbovirus transmitting mosquitoes in the genus Aedes. Few studies have investigated the infection response of Anopheles mosquitoes to arboviruses. In this study we detail the transcriptomic and small RNA responses of An. stephensi to infection with MAYV via infectious bloodmeal at 2, 7, and 14 days post infection (dpi). 487 unique transcripts were significantly regulated and 79 novel miRNAs were identified. Gene ontology analysis of transcripts regulated at each timepoint suggested activation of the Toll pathway at 7 dpi and repression of pathways related to autophagy at 14 dpi. These findings provide a basic understanding of the infection response of An. stephensi to MAYV and help to identify host factors which might be useful to target to inhibit viral replication in Anopheles mosquitoes.AUTHOR SUMMARY Mayaro virus (MAYV) is a mosquito-borne Alphavirus responsible for outbreaks in South America and the Caribbean. In this study we infected Anopheles stephensi with MAYV and sequenced mRNA and small RNA to understand how MAYV infection impacts gene transcription and the expression of small RNAs in the mosquito vector. Genes involved with innate immunity and autophagy are regulated in response to MAYV infection of An. stephensi, we also discover novel miRNAs and describe their expression patterns following bloodmeal ingestion. These results suggest that MAYV does induce a molecular response to infection in its mosquito vector species and that MAYV may have mechanisms to evade the vector immune response.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.