Shuang Liu

Climate change and human activities have increased the risk of virus spillover from wildlife, posing a threat to human health. A human ocular disease called persistent ocular hypertensive viral anterior uveitis (POH-VAU) has recently emerged; however, the cause is unclear. Here we report that POH-VAU is associated with covert mortality nodavirus (CMNV) of aquatic origin. CMNV is prevalent in farmed and wild aquatic animals worldwide. We confirmed CMNV infection in ocular tissues and seroconversion in 70 patients with POH-VAU. An exposure survey and analysis of logistic regression models revealed that CMNV exposure frequency, number of severe exposures and exposure severity were associated with an increased risk of POH-VAU. Epidemiological data indicate that frequent unprotected processing of aquatic animals and consumption of raw aquatic animals were commonly reported exposure events, collectively accounting for 71.4% of investigated cases. Challenge tests revealed that CMNV can cause elevated intraocular pressure and pathological damage to ocular tissues in mice and can infect mammalian cells in vitro. This study reveals that an aquatic animal virus is associated with an emerging human disease.

Translucent post-larvae disease (TPD), caused by Vibrio parahaemolyticus ( Vp _TPD ), has become an emerging shrimp disease, affecting more than 70%–80% of coastal shrimp nurseries in China in spring 2020. Here, we investigated the key virulence factors of Vp _TPD by analyzing protein fragments, related genomic information, as well as experimental challenge tests. After investigating the toxic effects of purified protein fragments with different molecular weights (MWs) from Vp _TPD, we found that only the protein fragments with MW >100 kDa showed similar lethality to live Vp _TPD in the experimental challenge test using post-larvae shrimp. Meanwhile, similar histopathological changes exhibiting in the hepatopancreas and midgut of the diseased individuals were observed in the post-larvae shrimp challenged with either bacterial protein fragments (MW >100 kDa) or live Vp _TPD . Based on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and mass spectrometry analyses, two novel proteins, Vibrio high virulent protein (VHVP)-1 and VHVP-2, were identified as the candidates of key virulence factors to cause TPD. Moreover, VHVP-1 and VHVP-2 were found to be encoded by two genes ( vhvp-1 and vhvp-2 ) tandemly located on a 187,791-bp plasmid and were predicted to depend on the same promoter following a comparative genomic analysis. Further epidemiological investigation and challenge test indicated that the V. parahaemolyticus isolate carrying only the vhvp-1 gene and lacking vhvp-2 gene could not cause mortality of experimental Penaeus vannamei post-larvae. The mutant (Δvhvp-2) by deleting vhvp-2 gene could only cause 4.92% of accumulative mortality of post-larvae that is similar to the non- Vp _TPD Vibrio strain. Additionally, the complemented strains, Δvhvp-2/pBT3-vhvp-2 and Δvhvp-2/pwtCas9-vhvp-2, showed similar virulence to the wild-type Vp _TPD . The results demonstrated that V. parahaemolyticus becomes lethal to post-larval shrimp by acquiring the VHVP-2 virulence factor. This study sheds light on further investigations of the pathogenic mechanism of Vp _TPD and the development of strategies for early diagnosis of TPD in shrimp hatcheries. IMPORTANCE: As a severe emerging shrimp disease, TPD has heavily impacted the shrimp aquaculture industry and resulted in serious economic losses in China since spring 2020. This study aimed to identify the key virulent factors and related genes of the Vp _TPD , for a better understanding of its pathogenicity of the novel highly lethal infectious pathogen, as well as its molecular epidemiological characteristics in China. The present study revealed that a novel protein, Vibrio high virulent protein-2 (MW >100 kDa), is responsible to the lethal virulence of V. parahaemolyticus to shrimp post-larvae. The results are essential for effectively diagnosing and monitoring novel pathogenic bacteria, like Vp _TPD , in aquaculture shrimps and would be beneficial to the fisheries department in early warning of Vp _TPD emergence and developing prevention strategies to reduce economic losses due to severe outbreaks of TPD. Elucidation of the key virulence genes and genomics of Vp _TPD could also provide valuable information on the evolution and ecology of this emerging pathogen in aquaculture environments.

Covert mortality nodavirus (CMNV), the pathogen of viral covert mortality disease (VCMD), has caused serious economic losses of shrimp aquaculture in Southeast Asian countries and China in the past decade. In view of that the rapid and accurate laboratory detection of CMNV plays a major role in the effective control of the spread of VCMD. The national proficiency test (NPT) for the detection of covert mortality nodavirus (CMNV) started in China from 2021. In this study, a novel TaqMan real-time reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) detection method for CMNV with higher sensitivity than previous reports was established based on specific primers and probe designing from the conserved regions of the CMNV coat protein gene for using molecular detection of CMNV in NPT. The optimized RT-qPCR reaction program was determined as reverse transcription at 54.9 °C for 15 min and denaturation at 95 °C for 1 min, followed by 40 cycles including denaturation at 95 °C for 10 s, and annealing and extension at 54.9 °C for 25 s. The detection limit of the newly developed RT-qPCR method was determined to be as low as 2.15 copies of CMNV plasmids template per reaction, with the correlation coefficient (R²) at above 0.99. The new method showed no cross reaction with the six common aquatic animal pathogens and could be finished in one hour, which represents a rapid detection method that can save 50% detection time versus the previously reported assay. The CMNV TaqMan probe based RT-qPCR method developed in present study supplies a novel sensitive and specific tool for both the rapid diagnosing and quantitating of CMNV in NPT activities and in the farmed crustaceans, and will help practitioners in the aquaculture industry to prevent and control VCMD effectively.

Global shrimp farming is increasingly threatened by various emerging viruses. In the present study, a novel picornavirus, Penaeus vannamei picornavirus (PvPV), was discovered in moribund White leg shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) collected from farm ponds in China in 2015. Similar to most picornaviruses, PvPV is non-enveloped RNA virus, with a particle diameter of approximately 30 nm. The sequence of the positive single-stranded RNA genome with a length of 10,550 nts was characterized by using genome sequencing and reverse transcription PCR. The existence of PvPV related proteins was further proved by confirmation of viral amino acid sequences, using mass spectrometry analysis. Phylogenetic analysis based on the full-length genomic sequence revealed that PvPV was more closely related to the Wenzhou shrimp virus 8 than to any other dicistroviruses in the order Picornavirales. Genomic sequence conservative domain prediction analysis showed that the PvPV genome encoded a large tegument protein UL36, which was unique among the known dicistroviruses and different from other dicistroviruses. According to these molecular features, we proposed that PvPV is a new species in the family Dicistroviridae. This study reported the first whole-genome sequence of a novel and distinct picornavirus in crustaceans, PvPV, and suggests that further studies of PvPV would be helpful in understanding its evolution and potential pathogenicity, as well as in developing diagnostic techniques.