Recombinants between Deformed wing virus and Varroa destructor virus are prevailing virus types in Varroa destructor- infested honeybee colonies.

By using high-throughput Illumina sequencing we identified recombinants between deformed wing virus (DWV) and Varroa destructor virus-1 (VDV-1), which accumulated to higher levels than DWV in the honeybees and Varroa destructor mites. The recombinants, DWVVVD and DWVDVD, respectively contained VDV-1 or DWV 5'-untranslated region (UTR) followed by VDV-1 structural genes, DWV non-structural genes, and DWV 3'-UTR. Individual honeybees could be infected with a mixture of these recombinants and DWV, the levels of DWVDVD and DWVVVD were higher than those of DWV. A high correlation between DWVDVD levels in honeybee pupae and the associated mites suggests that DWVDVD is the better adapted to transmission between V. destructor and honeybee than DWV or DWVVVD.