Discovery and characterisation of a new insect-specific bunyavirus from Culex mosquitoes captured in northern Australia

- A new bunyavirus was found in Culex mosquitoes in northern Australia.
- The replication of Badu virus is restricted to insect cells.
- Badu virus is phylogenetically related to members of the proposed Goukovirus genus.
- A functional furin cleavage motif was found in the predicted glycoprotein precursor.

Insect-specific viruses belonging to significant arboviral families have recently been discovered. These viruses appear to be maintained within the insect population without the requirement for replication in a vertebrate host. Mosquitoes collected from Badu Island in the Torres Strait in 2003 were analysed for insect-specific viruses. A novel bunyavirus was isolated in high prevalence from Culex spp. The new virus, provisionally called Badu virus (BADUV), replicated in mosquito cells of both Culex and Aedes origin, but failed to replicate in vertebrate cells. Genomic sequencing revealed that the virus was distinct from sequenced bunyavirus isolates reported to date, but phylogenetically clustered most closely with recently discovered mosquito-borne, insect-specific bunyaviruses in the newly proposed Goukovirus genus. The detection of a functional furin cleavage motif upstream of the two glycoproteins in the M segment-encoded polyprotein suggests that BADUV may employ a unique strategy to process the virion glycoproteins.