Novel pegiviruses infecting wild birds and rodents

Abstract

Pegivirus (family Flaviviridae) is a genus of small enveloped RNA viruses that mainly causes blood infections in various mammals including human. Herein, we carried out an extensive survey of pegiviruses from a wide range of wild animals mainly sampled in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China. Three novel pegiviruses, namely Passer montanus pegivirus, Leucosticte brandti pegivirus and Montifringilla taczanowskii pegivirus, were identified from different wild birds, and one new rodent pegivirus, namely Phaiomys leucurus pegivirus, was identified from Blyth's vole. Interestingly, the pegiviruses of non-mammalian origin discovered in this study substantially broaden the host range of Pegivirus to avian species. Co-evolutionary analysis showed virus-host co-divergence over long evolutionary timescales, and indicated that pegiviruses largely followed a virus-host co-divergence relationship. Overall, this work extends the biodiversity of the Pegivirus genus to those infecting wild birds and hence revises the host range and evolutionary history of genus Pegivirus.

Keywords: Bird; Evolution; Pegivirus; Qinghai-Tibet Plateau; Rat.