Molecular Ecology and Natural History of Simian Foamy Virus Infection in Wild-Living Chimpanzees

PLoS Pathogens

Christophe Boesch¹  Crickette Sanz²  David P. Watts³  Anne E. Pusey⁴  Martine Peeters⁵  Yingying Li⁶  Brandon F. Keele⁶  Weimin Liu⁶  Paul A. Goepfert⁶  William M. Switzer⁶  Frederic Bibollet-Ruche⁶  Yuanyuan Guo⁶  Jean-Bosco N. Ndjango⁷  Mario L. Santiago⁸  Michael L. Wilson⁹  Michael A. Huffman^1,10  Cecile Neel^1,11  George M. Shaw^1,11  Beatrice H. Hahn^1,12  Nicole Gross-Camp^1,13  Paul M. Sharp^1,14  Vince Smith^1,15  Shadrack Kamenya^1,15  Stephen L. Clifford^1,16  John C. Mitani^1,17  Koichiro Zamma^1,18  Michael Worobey^1,19 

[1] Antioch New England Graduate School, Keene, New Hampshire, United States of America;Centre International de Recherches Medicales de Franceville (CIRMF), Franceville, Gabon;Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America;Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America;Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America;Departments of Medicine and Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America;Faculties of Sciences, University of Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo;Gladstone Institute for Virology and Immunology, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America;Gombe Stream Research Centre, The Jane Goodall Institute, Tanzania;Great Ape Research Institute, Hayashibara Biochemical Laboratories, Okayama, Japan;Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) and University of Montpellier 1, Montpellier, France;Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom;Jane Goodall Institute's Center for Primate Studies, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, United States of America;Laboratory Branch, National Center for HIV/AIDS, STD, and TB Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America;Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany;Projet Prevention du Sida ou Cameroun (PRESICA), Yaoundé, Cameroun;Section of Ecology, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Aichi, Japan;The Gorilla Organization, Kigali, Rwanda;University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America

关键词: Chimpanzees;    Antibodies;    Primates;    Mitochondrial DNA;    Phylogenetic analysis;    Apes;    DNA sequence analysis;    Sequence analysis;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.ppat.1000097

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

Identifying microbial pathogens with zoonotic potential in wild-living primates can be important to human health, as evidenced by human immunodeficiency viruses types 1 and 2 (HIV-1 and HIV-2) and Ebola virus. Simian foamy viruses (SFVs) are ancient retroviruses that infect Old and New World monkeys and apes. Although not known to cause disease, these viruses are of public health interest because they have the potential to infect humans and thus provide a more general indication of zoonotic exposure risks. Surprisingly, no information exists concerning the prevalence, geographic distribution, and genetic diversity of SFVs in wild-living monkeys and apes. Here, we report the first comprehensive survey of SFVcpz infection in free-ranging chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) using newly developed, fecal-based assays. Chimpanzee fecal samples (n = 724) were collected at 25 field sites throughout equatorial Africa and tested for SFVcpz-specific antibodies (n = 706) or viral nucleic acids (n = 392). SFVcpz infection was documented at all field sites, with prevalence rates ranging from 44% to 100%. In two habituated communities, adult chimpanzees had significantly higher SFVcpz infection rates than infants and juveniles, indicating predominantly horizontal rather than vertical transmission routes. Some chimpanzees were co-infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIVcpz); however, there was no evidence that SFVcpz and SIVcpz were epidemiologically linked. SFVcpz nucleic acids were recovered from 177 fecal samples, all of which contained SFVcpz RNA and not DNA. Phylogenetic analysis of partial gag (616 bp), pol-RT (717 bp), and pol-IN (425 bp) sequences identified a diverse group of viruses, which could be subdivided into four distinct SFVcpz lineages according to their chimpanzee subspecies of origin. Within these lineages, there was evidence of frequent superinfection and viral recombination. One chimpanzee was infected by a foamy virus from a Cercopithecus monkey species, indicating cross-species transmission of SFVs in the wild. These data indicate that SFVcpz (i) is widely distributed among all chimpanzee subspecies; (ii) is shed in fecal samples as viral RNA; (iii) is transmitted predominantly by horizontal routes; (iv) is prone to superinfection and recombination; (v) has co-evolved with its natural host; and (vi) represents a sensitive marker of population structure that may be useful for chimpanzee taxonomy and conservation strategies.

【 授权许可】

CC BY