Screening and identification of viruses in termites: behavior-regulating roles of RcBsV and RcBV

Abstract

Termites live underground in a social setting having continuous contact with microorganism. However, there is no comparative study on virus diversity and relative abundance between termites, castes and body parts in termites. To address this gap, pseudergates of Cryptotermes declivis, workers of the Odontotermes formosanus, and workers, soldiers and alates of the Reticulitermes chinensis were used as experimental materials to perform virome sequencing, virus annotations and their relative abundance analysis.