Endogenous Viral Elements Are Widespread in Arthropod Genomes and Commonly Give Rise to PIWI-Interacting RNAs

Abstract

Our results greatly expand the knowledge of EVE abundance, diversity, and function in an exceptionally wide range of arthropod species. We found that while previous findings in mosquitoes regarding the potential of EVEs to serve as sources of immunological memory via the piRNA pathway may be generalized to other arthropod species, speculation regarding the antiviral function of EVE-derived piRNAs should take into context the fact that EVEs are, in the vast majority of cases, not similar enough to currently described viruses at the nucleotide level to serve as sources of antiviral piRNAs against them.