Metagenome analysis of viruses associated with <i>Anopheles</i> mosquitoes from Ramu Upazila, Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh

Bangladesh has a warm climate and landscapes favourable for the proliferation of mosquitoes. Mosquito-borne pathogens including malaria and arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) remain a serious threat to the public health requiring constant vector control and disease surveillance. From November 2018 to April 2019, <i>Anopheles</i> mosquitoes were collected in three unions in the Ramu Upazila (sub-district) of Cox's Bazar District, Bangladesh. The mosquito specimens were combined into pools based on date of collection, household ID, and sex. Metagenome next-generation sequencing was conducted to elucidate diversity of virus sequences in each pool. Homology-based taxonomic classification and phylogenetic analyses identified a broad diversity of putative viruses from 12 known families, with additional unclassified viruses also likely present. Analysis of male mosquitoes showed some of these viruses are likely capable of being vertically transmitted. Moreover, many of the assembled virus sequences share homology and phylogenetic affinity with segments in sequenced <i>Anopheles</i> genomes, and may represent endogenous viral elements derived from a past evolutionary relationship between these putative viruses and their mosquito hosts.