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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
Experimental evidence indicating that mastreviruses probably did not co-diverge with their hosts
Virology Journal, Volume 6, Article 104, Year 2009
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Description
Background. Despite the demonstration that geminiviruses, like many other single stranded DNA viruses, are evolving at rates similar to those of RNA viruses, a recent study has suggested that grass-infecting species in the genus Mastrevirus may have co-diverged with their hosts over millions of years. This "co-divergence hypothesis" requires that long-term mastrevirus substitution rates be at least 100,000-fold lower than their basal mutation rates and 10,000-fold lower than their observable short-term substitution rates. The credibility of this hypothesis, therefore, hinges on the testable claim that negative selection during mastrevirus evolution is so potent that it effectively purges 99.999% of all mutations that occur. Results. We have conducted long-term evolution experiments lasting between 6 and 32 years, where we have determined substitution rates of between 2 and 3 × 10 -4substitutions/site/year for the mastreviruses Maize streak virus (MSV) and Sugarcane streak Réunion virus (SSRV). We further show that mutation biases are similar for different geminivirus genera, suggesting that mutational processes that drive high basal mutation rates are conserved across the family. Rather than displaying signs of extremely severe negative selection as implied by the co-divergence hypothesis, our evolution experiments indicate that MSV and SSRV are predominantly evolving under neutral genetic drift. Conclusion. The absence of strong negative selection signals within our evolution experiments and the uniformly high geminivirus substitution rates that we and others have reported suggest that mastreviruses cannot have co-diverged with their hosts. © 2009 Harkins et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Available Materials
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC2719613/bin/1743-422X-6-104-S1.doc
Authors & Co-Authors
Harkins, Gordon William
South Africa, Bellville
University of the Western Cape
New Zealand, Christchurch
University of Canterbury
Delport, Wayne
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
United States, La Jolla
University of California, San Diego
New Zealand, Christchurch
University of Canterbury
Duffy, Siobain
United States, New Brunswick
Rutgers University–new Brunswick
New Zealand, Christchurch
University of Canterbury
Wood, Natasha T.
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
South Africa, Cape Town
Centre for High Performance Computing, Cape Town
New Zealand, Christchurch
University of Canterbury
Monjane, Adérito Luis
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
New Zealand, Christchurch
University of Canterbury
Owor, Betty Elizabeth
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
New Zealand, Christchurch
University of Canterbury
Donaldson, Lara
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
New Zealand, Christchurch
University of Canterbury
Saumtally, Salem
Mauritius, Reduit
Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute
New Zealand, Christchurch
University of Canterbury
Triton, Guy
Mauritius, Reduit
Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute
New Zealand, Christchurch
University of Canterbury
Briddon, Rob William
United Kingdom, Norwich
John Innes Centre
New Zealand, Christchurch
University of Canterbury
Shepherd, Dionne Natalie
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
New Zealand, Christchurch
University of Canterbury
Rybicki, Edward P.
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
New Zealand, Christchurch
University of Canterbury
Martin, Darren Patrick
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
New Zealand, Christchurch
University of Canterbury
Varsani, Arvind
Pakistan, Faisalabad
National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Pakistan
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
New Zealand, Christchurch
University of Canterbury
Statistics
Citations: 55
Authors: 14
Affiliations: 9
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1186/1743-422X-6-104
e-ISSN:
1743422X
Research Areas
Cancer
Genetics And Genomics