Newly discovered insect RNA viruses in China

• Published in: Science China. Life sciences 2013-08, Vol.56 (8), p.711-714
• Main Authors: Qiu, Yang, Wang, ZhaoWei, Liu, YongXiang, Qi, Nan, Si, Jie, Xiang, Xue, Xia, XiaoLing, Hu, YuanYang, Zhou, Xi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Arthropoda; Biomedical and Life Sciences; China; Insect Viruses - genetics; Insect Viruses - isolation & purification; Insect Viruses - pathogenicity; Insecta - virology; Life Sciences; Nodaviridae - genetics; Nodaviridae - isolation & purification; Nodaviridae - pathogenicity; Pest Control, Biological; Picornaviridae - genetics; Picornaviridae - isolation & purification; Picornaviridae - pathogenicity; Review; RNA Viruses - genetics; RNA Viruses - isolation & purification; RNA Viruses - pathogenicity; RNA病毒; 中国; 昆虫病毒; 生命形式; 生物控制剂; 细胞生物学; 经济损失; 节肢动物
• ISSN: 1674-7305; 1869-1889
• DOI: 10.1007/s11427-013-4520-2

Insects are a group of arthropods and the largest group of animals on Earth, with over one million species described to date. Like other life forms, insects suffer from viruses that cause disease and death. Viruses that are pathogenic to beneficial insects cause dramatic economic losses on agriculture. In contrast, viruses that are pathogenic to insect pests can be exploited as attractive biological control agents. All of these factors have led to an explosion in the amount of research into insect viruses in recent years, generating impressive quantities of information on the molecular and cellular biology of these viruses. Due to the wide variety of insect viruses, a better understanding of these viruses will expand our overall knowledge of their virology. Here, we review studies of several newly discovered RNA insect viruses in China.