Discovery of Novel Viruses Associated With the Invasive Cane Toad (Rhinella marina) in Its Native and Introduced Ranges

Russo, Alice G.; Harding, Emma F.; Yan, Grace J. H.; Selechnik, D.; Ducatez, Simon; DeVore, Jayna L.; Zhou, Jia; Sarma, Roshmi R.; Richardson, Mark F.; Shine, Richard; Rollins, Lee A.; White, Peter A.

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2021.733631

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…Largemouth bass virus and mandarin fish ranavirus are highly lethal in farmed populations, causing 95-100% mortality [60, 61]. Our metatranscriptomic analysis also identified a novel iridovirus in E. tutuilae that fell sister to erythrocytic necrosis virus (ENV) [51] and clustered with other erythrocytic-like viruses identified in amphibians and reptiles [52, 53, 54, 55]. ENV was the closest relative across all proteins identified (Supplementary Table 2).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Limited Cross-Species Virus Transmission in a Spatially Restricted Coral Reef Fish Community

Costa

Bellwood

Mifsud

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) — the largest coral reef ecosystem in the world — supports over 1200 fish species with some of the highest population densities and diversities seen in vertebrates, offering a high potential for virus transmission among species. As such, the GBR represents an exceptional natural ecosystem to determine the impact of host community diversity on virus evolution and emergence. In recent decades the GBR has also experienced significant threats of extinction, making it one of the most vulnerable ecosystems on the planet. However, our understanding of virus diversity and connectivity in tropical reef fishes remains poor. Here, we employed metatranscriptomic sequencing to reveal the viromes of 61 reef fish species. This identified a total of 132 viruses, 38 of which were vertebrate-associated and therefore likely infecting the fish, including a novel isolate of Santee-cooper ranavirus (Iridoviridae). Notably, we found little evidence for virus transmission between fish species living within a very restricted geographical space — a 100 m2 coral reef ecosystem — suggesting that there might be important host genetic barriers to successful cross-species transmission despite regular exposure. We also identified differences in virome composition between reef fish families, such that cryptobenthic reef fishes — characterized by small body sizes and short life-spans — exhibited greater virome richness compared to large reef fishes. This study suggests that there are important barriers to cross-species transmission, and that successful emergence in a reef fish community likely requires active host adaptation, even among closely related host species.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Limited Cross-Species Virus Transmission in a Spatially Restricted Coral Reef Fish Community

Costa

Bellwood

Mifsud

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…Members of the family Picornaviridae are small, nonenveloped, positive single-stranded RNA viruses that can cause a variety of human diseases such as poliomyelitis, common cold, myocarditis, and hepatitis [ 46 ]. Many PicoVs infecting amphibians have been discovered by sequencing over the years [ 19 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ]. The identification of AtPicoVs will help to expand our knowledge of the family Picornaviridae , which will facilitate the study of amphibian PicoVs in the future.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The identification of AtPicoVs will help to expand our knowledge of the family Picornaviridae , which will facilitate the study of amphibian PicoVs in the future. On the other hand, thousands of novel viral genomes from invertebrate samples have recently identified by meta-transcriptomic studies [ 47 , 51 , 52 ]. In our study, we identified several invertebrate RNA viruses from three libraries (SC-liver, SC-lung, and SC-gut) derived from liver, lung, and gut samples.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First Discovery of Phenuiviruses within Diverse RNA Viromes of Asiatic Toad (Bufo gargarizans) by Metagenomics Sequencing

Chen

Zhao

et al. 2023

Viruses

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Most zoonotic pathogens originate from mammals and avians, but viral diversity and related biosafety risk assessment in lower vertebrates also need to be explored. Amphibians are an important group of lower vertebrates that played a momentous role in animal evolution. To elucidate the diversity of RNA viruses in one important species of amphibians, the Asiatic toad (Bufo gargarizans), we obtained 44 samples including lung, gut, liver, and kidney tissues from Asiatic toads in Sichuan and Jilin provinces, China, for viral metagenomics sequencing. More than 20 novel RNA viruses derived from the order Bunyavirales and 7 families of Astroviridae, Dicistroviridae, Leviviridae, Partitiviridae, Picornaviridae, Rhabdoviridae, and Virgaviridae were discovered, which were distinct from previously described viruses and formed new clusters, as revealed by phylogenetic analyses. Notably, a novel bastrovirus, AtBastV/GCCDC11/2022, of the family Astroviridae was identified from the gut library, the genome of which contains three open reading frames, with the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) coded by ORF1 closely related to that of hepeviruses, and ORF2 encoding an astrovirus-related capsid protein. Notably, phenuiviruses were discovered for the first time in amphibians. AtPhenV1/GCCDC12/2022 and AtPhenV2/GCCDC13/2022 clustered together and formed a clade with the group of phenuiviruses identified from rodents. Picornaviruses and several invertebrate RNA viruses were also detected. These findings improve our understanding of the high RNA viral diversity in the Asiatic toad and provide new insights in the evolution of RNA viruses in amphibians.

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“…The discovery of DNA viruses primarily relies on either tissue DNA sequencing or PCR-based approaches. Many new viruses have been discovered this way [ 27 – 29 ], however a novel approach is to utilise transcriptomic data to discover DNA viruses through bioinformatic approaches [ 15 , 30 – 32 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We identified a novel member of the DNA subfamily of the Papillomaviridae family, namely Secondpapillomavirinae , which to-date only contains one formally recognised virus [ 45 ]. The Secondpapillomavirinae viruses comprise greatly condensed viral genomes, conserving only the core E1-E2-L2-L1 genes, which may represent ancestral sequences that diversified in lower vertebrates [ 30 , 33 , 46 ]. Oreolalax rhodostigmatus papillomavirus is the second amphibian papillomavirus discovered, and the newest member of the Secondpapillomavirinae subfamily of fish and amphibian papillomaviruses (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revealing the uncharacterised diversity of amphibian and reptile viruses

Harding

Russo²,

Yan³

et al. 2022

ISME Communications

Self Cite

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Amphibians and non-avian reptiles represent a significant proportion of terrestrial vertebrates, however knowledge of their viruses is not proportional to their abundance. Many amphibians and reptiles have strict habitual environments and localised populations and are vulnerable to viral outbreaks and potential elimination as a result. We sought to identify viruses that were hidden in amphibian and reptile metatranscriptomic data by screening 235 RNA-sequencing datasets from a 122 species covering 25 countries. We identified 26 novel viruses and eight previously characterised viruses from fifteen different viral families. Twenty-five viruses had RNA genomes with identity to Arteriviridae, Tobaniviridae, Hantaviridae, Rhabdoviridae, Astroviridae, Arenaviridae, Hepeviridae, Picornaviridae, Orthomyxoviridae, Reoviridae, Flaviviridae and Caliciviridae. In addition to RNA viruses, we also screened datasets for DNA viral transcripts, which are commonly excluded from transcriptomic analysis. We identified ten DNA viruses with identity to Papillomaviridae, Parvoviridae, Circoviridae and Adomaviridae. With the addition of these viruses, we expand the global amphibian and reptile virome and identify new potentially pathogenic viruses that could challenge populations. We speculate that amphibian viruses often have simpler genomes than those in amniotes, as in the case of the Secondpapillomavirinae and Orthomyxoviridae viruses identified in this study. In addition, we find evidence of inter-family recombination in RNA viruses, and we also identify new members of the recombinant Adomaviridae family. Overall, we provide insights into the uncharacterised diversity of amphibian and reptile viruses with the aim of improving population management, treatment and conservation into the future.

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Discovery of Novel Viruses Associated With the Invasive Cane Toad (Rhinella marina) in Its Native and Introduced Ranges

Cited by 12 publications

References 77 publications

Limited Cross-Species Virus Transmission in a Spatially Restricted Coral Reef Fish Community

Limited Cross-Species Virus Transmission in a Spatially Restricted Coral Reef Fish Community

First Discovery of Phenuiviruses within Diverse RNA Viromes of Asiatic Toad (Bufo gargarizans) by Metagenomics Sequencing

Revealing the uncharacterised diversity of amphibian and reptile viruses

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