A reptilian endogenous foamy virus sheds light on the early evolution of retroviruses

Xiaoman Wei; Yicong Chen; Guangqian Duan; Edward C Holmes; Jie Cui

doi:10.1093/ve/vez001

A reptilian endogenous foamy virus sheds light on the early evolution of retroviruses

Virus Evol. 2019 Feb 27;5(1):vez001. doi: 10.1093/ve/vez001. eCollection 2019 Jan.

Authors

Xiaoman Wei^{1

2}, Yicong Chen^{1

2}, Guangqian Duan², Edward C Holmes³, Jie Cui¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³ Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, School of Life and Environmental Sciences and Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Abstract

Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) represent host genomic 'fossils' of ancient viruses. Foamy viruses, including those that form endogenous copies, provide strong evidence for virus-host co-divergence across the vertebrate phylogeny. Endogenous foamy viruses (EFVs) have previously been discovered in mammals, amphibians, and fish. Here we report a novel endogenous foamy virus, termed ERV-Spuma-Spu, in genome of the tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus), an endangered reptile species endemic to New Zealand. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that foamy viruses have likely co-diverged with their hosts over many millions of years. The discovery of ERV-Spuma-Spu fills a major gap in the fossil record of foamy viruses and provides important insights into the early evolution of retroviruses.

Keywords: endogenous retroviruses; evolution; foamy virus; reptiles; tuatara.