分枝杆菌病毒是感染真菌的病毒,广泛分布在所有主要的真菌分类群,表现出巨大的生物多样性。自从他们在1960年代被发现以来,研究人员已经观察到无数的真菌表型由于真菌病毒感染而改变。在这次审查中,我们在医学和农业上重要的真菌属的背景下研究了真菌病毒的细微差别世界,曲霉菌。RNA测序的出现揭示了以前对真菌中病毒流行的低估,特别是线性单链RNA病毒,在这里,我们概述了迄今为止已知的各种病毒家族,其中包含感染曲霉的分枝杆菌病毒。此外,我们描述了这些新型的分枝杆菌病毒,突出那些具有特殊基因组结构的人,例如分裂RNA依赖性RNA聚合酶基因。接下来,我们描述了曲霉中值得注意的分枝杆菌病毒介导的表型,特别报道了影响其真菌宿主毒力的分枝杆菌病毒的观察结果,并探讨了这可能与病毒介导的胁迫耐受性降低有关。此外,讨论了分枝杆菌病毒对微生物竞争和抗真菌耐药性的影响。影响这些表型表现的因素,如温度,真菌生命阶段,和多种病毒感染,其中,也进行了评估。此外,我们试图阐明支持这些表型的分子机制,检查真菌病毒如何成为目标,触发器,甚至是RNA沉默的抑制剂,以及这如何影响真菌基因表达和表型。最后,我们强调了分枝杆菌病毒的潜在治疗应用,在类似于噬菌体治疗的方法中,它们在曲霉中产生低毒力的能力可用于减轻人类的侵袭性曲霉病感染。
Mycoviruses are viruses that infect fungi and are widespread across all major fungal taxa, exhibiting great biological diversity. Since their discovery in the 1960s, researchers have observed a myriad of fungal phenotypes altered due to mycoviral infection. In this review, we examine the nuanced world of mycoviruses in the context of the medically and agriculturally important fungal genus, Aspergillus. The advent of RNA sequencing has revealed a previous underestimate of viral prevalence in fungi, in particular linear single-stranded RNA viruses, and here we outline the diverse viral families known to date that contain mycoviruses infecting Aspergillus. Furthermore, we describe these novel mycoviruses, highlighting those with peculiar genome structures, such as a split RNA dependent RNA polymerase gene. Next, we delineate notable mycovirus-mediated phenotypes in Aspergillus, in particular reporting on observations of mycoviruses that affect their fungal host\'s virulence and explore how this may relate to virus-mediated decreased stress tolerance. Furthermore, mycovirus effects on microbial competition and antifungal resistance are discussed. The factors that influence the manifestation of these phenotypes, such as temperature, fungal life stage, and infection with multiple viruses, among others, are also evaluated. In addition, we attempt to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that underpin these phenotypes, examining how mycoviruses can be targets, triggers, and even suppressors of RNA silencing and how this can affect fungal gene expression and phenotypes. Finally, we highlight the potential therapeutic applications of mycoviruses and how, in an approach analogous to bacteriophage therapy, their ability to produce hypovirulence in Aspergillus might be used to attenuate invasive aspergillosis infections in humans.