A novel papillomavirus in Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) faeces sampled at the Cape Crozier colony, Antarctica

Abstract

Papillomaviruses are epitheliotropic viruses that have circular dsDNA genomes encapsidated in non-enveloped virions. They have been found to infect a variety of mammals, reptiles and birds, but so far they have not been found in amphibians. Using a next-generation sequencing de novo assembly contig-informed recovery, we cloned and Sanger sequenced the complete genome of a novel papillomavirus from the faecal matter of Adé lie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) nesting on Ross Island, Antarctica. The genome had all the usual features of a papillomavirus and an E9 ORF encoding a protein of unknown function that is found in all avian papillomaviruses to date. This novel papillomavirus genome shared~60 % pairwise identity with the genomes of the other three known avian papillomaviruses: Fringilla coelebs papillomavirus 1 (FcPV1), Francolinus leucoscepus papillomavirus 1 (FlPV1) and Psittacus erithacus papillomavirus 1. Pairwise identity analysis and phylogenetic analysis of the major capsid protein gene clearly indicated that it represents a novel species, which we named Pygoscelis adeliae papillomavirus 1 (PaCV1). No evidence of recombination was detected in the genome of PaCV1, but we did detect a recombinant region (119 nt) in the E6 gene of FlPV1 with the recombinant region being derived from ancestral FcPV1-like sequences. Previously only paramyxoviruses, orthomyxoviruses and avian pox viruses have been genetically identified in penguins; however, the majority of penguin viral identifications have been based on serology or histology. This is the first report, to our knowledge, of a papillomavirus associated with a penguin species.

Identification of an avian polyomavirus associated with Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae)

“…As highlighted by Varsani et al (2014) for the P. adeliae papillomavirus, we are confident that AdPyV is associated with Adélie penguins and that the chances of contamination by the South Polar skua (Stercorarius maccormicki; preys on Adélie penguin eggs and chicks), the only other bird in the subcolony, are extremely slim; the skua do not nest within the faecal trays, are chased away by the penguins, are outnumbered by the penguins by .200 : 1, and in fact one skua pair defends~1000 nests, and the tray, within its territory. This report expands our current knowledge of the host range of avipolyomaviruses and to the best of our knowledge this is the first report of a polyomavirus associated with penguins.…”

“…Most of the early studies have relied on serological assays for identifying putative paramyxoviruses, orthomyxoviruses, flavirviruses and birnaviruses in wild penguin populations (Alexander et al, 1989;Austin & Webster, 1993;Gardner et al, 1997;Miller et al, 2010;Morgan et al, , 1985Smith et al, 2008;Thomazelli et al, 2010) and herpesviruses and togaviruses in captive individuals (Kincaid et al, 1988;Tuttle et al, 2005). A handful of recent studies have identified some of the viruses (avipoxviruses, Newcastle disease viruses, adenovirus, avian influenza virus and papillomavirus) at a molecular level (Carulei et al, 2009;Hurt et al, 2014;Kane et al, 2012;Lee et al, 2014;Thomazelli et al, 2010;Varsani et al, 2014).…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the five genomes of viruses associated with Antarctic animals to be characterized to date; previously identified viral genomes include those of a P. adeliae papillomavirus and an avian influenza virus subtype H11N2 from Adélie penguins (Hurt et al, 2014;Varsani et al, 2014) and adenoviruses from South Polar skuas and chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica) (Lee et al, 2014;Park et al, 2012). This highlights the poor knowledge of viruses associated with Antarctic animals.…”

“…Given that there is some movement of individual penguins between colonies on Ross Island (Dugger et al, 2010), we screened the faecal sample from Cape Crozier reported by Varsani et al (2014) and also checked the sequence reads resulting from this sample for AdPyV but found no evidence of it in the sample. Similarly, we did not find any evidence of the P. adeliae papillomavirus in the Cape Royds sample.…”

A large spectrum of alpha and beta papillomaviruses are detected in human stool samples

“…Indeed, sequences related to bovine and human PVs have been found in cats, suggesting cross-species transmission (Egberink et al, 2013). In the last few years, a large number of new PVs have been isolated from faeces/rectal samples of animals (rat, mouse and penguin) (Phan et al, 2011;Shulz et al, 2012;Varsani et al, 2014), particularly following the advent of next-generation DNA sequencing techniques. The risk of contracting HPV diseases for people in close contact with pets and other animals, although not yet demonstrated, cannot be excluded.…”