The Fecal Viral Flora of Wild Rodents

PLoS Pathogens

Tung G. Phan¹  Chunlin Wang¹  Robert K. Rose²  Beatrix Kapusinszky²  Howard L. Lipton³  Eric L. Delwart⁴ 

[1] Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, California, United States of America;Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America;Department of Viral Diagnostics, National Center for Epidemiology, Budapest, Hungary;Division of Infectious Diseases, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, California, United States of America

关键词: Mammalian genomics;    Rodents;    Sequence motif analysis;    Astroviruses;    Phylogenetic analysis;    Viral genomics;    Picornaviruses;    Polymerase chain reaction;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.ppat.1002218

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

The frequent interactions of rodents with humans make them a common source of zoonotic infections. To obtain an initial unbiased measure of the viral diversity in the enteric tract of wild rodents we sequenced partially purified, randomly amplified viral RNA and DNA in the feces of 105 wild rodents (mouse, vole, and rat) collected in California and Virginia. We identified in decreasing frequency sequences related to the mammalian viruses families Circoviridae, Picobirnaviridae, Picornaviridae, Astroviridae, Parvoviridae, Papillomaviridae, Adenoviridae, and Coronaviridae. Seventeen small circular DNA genomes containing one or two replicase genes distantly related to the Circoviridae representing several potentially new viral families were characterized. In the Picornaviridae family two new candidate genera as well as a close genetic relative of the human pathogen Aichi virus were characterized. Fragments of the first mouse sapelovirus and picobirnaviruses were identified and the first murine astrovirus genome was characterized. A mouse papillomavirus genome and fragments of a novel adenovirus and adenovirus-associated virus were also sequenced. The next largest fraction of the rodent fecal virome was related to insect viruses of the Densoviridae, Iridoviridae, Polydnaviridae, Dicistroviriade, Bromoviridae, and Virgaviridae families followed by plant virus-related sequences in the Nanoviridae, Geminiviridae, Phycodnaviridae, Secoviridae, Partitiviridae, Tymoviridae, Alphaflexiviridae, and Tombusviridae families reflecting the largely insect and plant rodent diet. Phylogenetic analyses of full and partial viral genomes therefore revealed many previously unreported viral species, genera, and families. The close genetic similarities noted between some rodent and human viruses might reflect past zoonoses. This study increases our understanding of the viral diversity in wild rodents and highlights the large number of still uncharacterized viruses in mammals.

【 授权许可】

CC BY