The hidden players: exogenous (nonendogenous) viruses in parasitoid ecology and biological control

IF 5.5 1区农林科学 Q1 BIOLOGY

Current opinion in insect science Pub Date : 2026-04-01 Epub Date: 2025-12-11 DOI:10.1016/j.cois.2025.101478

Jesica Pérez-Rodríguez , Luis Hernández-Pelegrín, Salvador Herrero, Laila Gasmi

{"title":"The hidden players: exogenous (nonendogenous) viruses in parasitoid ecology and biological control","authors":"Jesica Pérez-Rodríguez , Luis Hernández-Pelegrín, Salvador Herrero, Laila Gasmi","doi":"10.1016/j.cois.2025.101478","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Parasitoids are essential components of terrestrial ecosystems and key agents in biological pest control. Some species rely on endogenous viruses integrated into their genomes to enhance parasitism success. However, most parasitoids lack these mutualistic viruses and instead carry diverse nonendogenized DNA and RNA viruses, referred to as exogenous, whose roles remain far less understood. Here, we synthesize current knowledge on exogenous viruses associated with parasitoids, including their diversity, transmission, replication strategies, and infection outcomes. Despite the extensive diversity of parasitoids, our review shows that viruses have been characterized in only 34 species, with 62 RNA and 11 double-stranded DNA viruses identified. We also examine the implications of virus–parasitoid–host interactions for ecological dynamics and biological control, emphasizing how viruses may shape host–parasitoid relationships, competition, and pest suppression. Advancing our understanding of these exogenous viruses will provide new insight into virus–host evolution, ecosystem processes, and pest management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11038,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in insect science","volume":"74 ","pages":"Article 101478"},"PeriodicalIF":5.5000,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Current opinion in insect science","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214574525001488","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/12/11 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Parasitoids are essential components of terrestrial ecosystems and key agents in biological pest control. Some species rely on endogenous viruses integrated into their genomes to enhance parasitism success. However, most parasitoids lack these mutualistic viruses and instead carry diverse nonendogenized DNA and RNA viruses, referred to as exogenous, whose roles remain far less understood. Here, we synthesize current knowledge on exogenous viruses associated with parasitoids, including their diversity, transmission, replication strategies, and infection outcomes. Despite the extensive diversity of parasitoids, our review shows that viruses have been characterized in only 34 species, with 62 RNA and 11 double-stranded DNA viruses identified. We also examine the implications of virus–parasitoid–host interactions for ecological dynamics and biological control, emphasizing how viruses may shape host–parasitoid relationships, competition, and pest suppression. Advancing our understanding of these exogenous viruses will provide new insight into virus–host evolution, ecosystem processes, and pest management.

查看原文本刊更多论文

隐性参与者：类寄生虫生态中的外源性（非内源性）病毒和生物防治。

拟寄生物是陆地生态系统的重要组成部分，是生物防治害虫的重要手段。一些物种依靠整合到其基因组中的内源性病毒来提高寄生成功率。然而，大多数拟寄生虫缺乏这些共生病毒，而是携带多种非内源性DNA和RNA病毒，称为外源性病毒，其作用仍知之甚少。在这里，我们综合了与类寄生虫相关的外源病毒的现有知识，包括它们的多样性、传播、复制策略和感染结果。尽管类寄生物种类繁多，但我们的综述显示，仅鉴定出34种病毒，其中鉴定出62种RNA病毒和11种双链DNA病毒。我们还研究了病毒-寄生虫-宿主相互作用对生态动力学和生物控制的影响，强调病毒如何塑造宿主-寄生虫关系、竞争和害虫抑制。推进我们对这些外源病毒的理解将为病毒-宿主进化、生态系统过程和害虫管理提供新的见解。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Current opinion in insect science BIOLOGYECOLOGYENTOMOLOGY-ECOLOGY

CiteScore

10.40

自引率

1.90%

发文量

113

期刊介绍： Current Opinion in Insect Science is a new systematic review journal that aims to provide specialists with a unique and educational platform to keep up–to–date with the expanding volume of information published in the field of Insect Science. As this is such a broad discipline, we have determined themed sections each of which is reviewed once a year. The following 11 areas are covered by Current Opinion in Insect Science. -Ecology -Insect genomics -Global Change Biology -Molecular Physiology (Including Immunity) -Pests and Resistance -Parasites, Parasitoids and Biological Control -Behavioural Ecology -Development and Regulation -Social Insects -Neuroscience -Vectors and Medical and Veterinary Entomology There is also a section that changes every year to reflect hot topics in the field. Section Editors, who are major authorities in their area, are appointed by the Editors of the journal. They divide their section into a number of topics, ensuring that the field is comprehensively covered and that all issues of current importance are emphasized. Section Editors commission articles from leading scientists on each topic that they have selected and the commissioned authors write short review articles in which they present recent developments in their subject, emphasizing the aspects that, in their opinion, are most important. In addition, they provide short annotations to the papers that they consider to be most interesting from all those published in their topic over the previous year.