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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
agricultural and biological sciences
Tracking viral evolution during a disease outbreak: The rapid and complete selective sweep of a circovirus in the endangered echo parakeet
Journal of Virology, Volume 86, No. 9, Year 2012
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Description
Circoviruses are among the smallest and simplest of all viruses, but they are relatively poorly characterized. Here, we intensively sampled two sympatric parrot populations from Mauritius over a period of 11 years and screened for the circovirus Beak and feather disease virus (BFDV). During the sampling period, a severe outbreak of psittacine beak and feather disease, which is caused by BFDV, occurred in Echo parakeets. Consequently, this data set presents an ideal system for studying the evolution of a pathogen in a natural population and to understand the adaptive changes that cause outbreaks. Unexpectedly, we discovered that the outbreak was most likely caused by changes in functionally important regions of the normally conserved replicationassociated protein gene and not the immunogenic capsid. Moreover, these mutations were completely fixed in the Echo parakeet host population very shortly after the outbreak. Several capsid alleles were linked to the replication-associated protein outbreak allele, suggesting that whereas the key changes occurred in the latter, the scope of the outbreak and the selective sweep may have been influenced by positive selection in the capsid. We found evidence for viral transmission between the two host populations though evidence for the invasive species as the source of the outbreak was equivocal. Finally, the high evolutionary rate that we estimated shows how rapidly new variation can arise in BFDV and is consistent with recent results from other small singlestranded DNA viruses. © 2012, American Society for Microbiology.
Authors & Co-Authors
Kundu, Samit
United Kingdom, Canterbury
University of Kent
Chris Guy Faulkes, Chris Guy
United Kingdom, London
School of Biological and Chemical Sciences Queen Mary University of London
Greenwood, Andrew G.
United Kingdom, Keighley
International Zoo Veterinary Group Llp
Jones, Carl G.
United Kingdom, Jersey
Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust
Mauritius, Vacoas
Mauritian Wildlife Foundation
Kaiser, Pete
United Kingdom, Roslin
The Royal Dick School of Veterinary Studies
Lyne, Owen D.
United Kingdom, Canterbury
University of Kent
Black, Simon A.
United Kingdom, Canterbury
University of Kent
Chowrimootoo, Aurélie
United Kingdom, Jersey
Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust
Groombridge, Jim J.
United Kingdom, Canterbury
University of Kent
Statistics
Citations: 72
Authors: 9
Affiliations: 6
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1128/JVI.06504-11
ISSN:
0022538X
e-ISSN:
10985514
Research Areas
Genetics And Genomics
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Study Locations
Mauritius