A Novel Iridovirus Discovered in Deep-Sea Carnivorous Sponges

Marta Canuti; Gabrielle Large; Joost T P Verhoeven; Suzanne C Dufour

doi:10.3390/v14081595

A Novel Iridovirus Discovered in Deep-Sea Carnivorous Sponges

Viruses. 2022 Jul 22;14(8):1595. doi: 10.3390/v14081595.

Authors

Marta Canuti¹, Gabrielle Large¹, Joost T P Verhoeven¹, Suzanne C Dufour¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 45 Arctic Ave., St. John's, NL A1C 5S7, Canada.

Abstract

Carnivorous sponges (family Cladorhizidae) use small invertebrates as their main source of nutrients. We discovered a novel iridovirus (carnivorous sponge-associated iridovirus, CaSpA-IV) in Chondrocladia grandis and Cladorhiza oxeata specimens collected in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans at depths of 537-852 m. The sequenced viral genome (~190,000 bp) comprised 185 predicted ORFs, including those encoding 26 iridoviral core proteins, and phylogenetic analyses showed that CaSpA-IV is a close relative to members of the genus Decapodiridovirus and highly identical to a partially sequenced virus pathogenic to decapod shrimps. CaSpA-IV was found in various anatomical regions of six C. grandis (sphere, stem, root) from the Gulf of Maine and Baffin Bay and of two C. oxeata (sphere, secondary axis) from Baffin Bay. Partial MCP sequencing revealed a divergent virus (CaSpA-IV-2) in one C. oxeata. The analysis of a 10 nt long tandem repeat showed a number of repeats consistent across sub-sections of the same sponges but different between animals, suggesting the presence of different strains. As the genetic material of crustaceans, particularly from the zooplanktonic copepod order Calanoida, was identified in the investigated samples, further studies are required to elucidate whether CaSpA-IV infects the carnivorous sponges, their crustacean prey, or both.

Keywords: Chondrocladia; Cladorhizidae; carnivorous sponges; iridovirus; virus discovery.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Atlantic Ocean
Carnivora*
Carnivory
Iridovirus*
Phylogeny

Grants and funding

Funding for this research was partially provided by the Ocean Frontier Institute through a Seed Grant awarded to J.T.P.V. from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund. M.C. was supported by funds from the Joint Mink Research Committee. Funding for research expeditions that allowed specimen collection was provided by the ArcticNet Grant “Hidden Biodiversity and Vulnerability of Hard-Bottom and Surrounding Environments in the Canadian Arctic” and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Grant 2015-06548 to S.C.D (Baffin Bay), and the NSERC Ship Time Grant 436808-2013 and the Northeast Regional Deep-Sea Coral Initiative, funded in part by NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, and NOAA’s Deep-Sea Coral Research and Technology Program (Gulf of Maine).