Adenoviruses of the most ancient primate lineages support the theory on virus−host co-evolution

Abstract

The scarcity or complete lack of information on the adenoviruses (AdVs) occurring in the most ancient non-human primates resulted in the initiation of a study for exploring their abundance and diversity in prosimians and New World monkeys (NWMs). In order to assess the variability of these AdVs and the possible signs of the hypothesised virus−host co-evolution, samples from almost every family of NWMs and prosimians were screened for the presence of AdVs. A PCRscreening of 171 faecal or organ samples from live or dead, captive or wild-living prosimians and NWMs was performed. The PCR products from the gene of the IVa2 protein were sequenced and used in phylogeny calculations. The presence of 10 and 15 new AdVs in seven and ten different species of prosimians and NWMs was revealed, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the tentative novel AdVs cluster into two separate groups, which form the most basal branches among the primate AdVs, and therefore support the theory on the co-evolution of primate AdVs with their hosts. This is the first report that provides a comprehensive overview of the AdVs occurring in prosimians and NWMs, and the first insight into the evolutionary relationships among AdVs from all major primate groups.

Adenoviruses across the animal kingdom: a walk in the zoo

“…). This topology is congruent with that of the known phylogeny of primates, thus underscoring the theory on the AdV–host coevolution .…”

“…From New World monkeys, only a single AdV isolate is available, namely titi monkey AdV‐1, whose genome is sequenced fully . More recently, a large number of AdVs have been detected by PCR and characterized by partial sequences from different New World monkeys, including cotton‐top tamarin, red‐handed tamarin, common squirrel monkey, red‐bellied tamarin, golden‐headed lion tamarin, tufted capuchin monkey, gray‐bellied night monkey, red‐faced spider monkey, and marmoset . Apart from a single case report , no evidence implying human infection by New World monkey AdVs has ever been published.…”

“…The same might be true for the AdVs of prosimians, the most ancient lineage of primates. The first PCR screening on samples originating from Madagascar or European zoos has just been reported . Novel AdVs were found in ring‐tailed lemur, black‐and‐white ruffed lemur, eastern lesser bamboo lemur, red‐fronted lemur, black lemur, and crowned lemur (https://sites.google.com/site/adenoseq/).…”

Virus–Host Coevolution with a Focus on Animal and Human DNA Viruses

“…Codivergence is not obvious here at the first look as host switches blur the picture (Hoppe et al 2015;Purkayastha et al 2005;Roy et al 2009;Wevers et al 2011), but it is still observable. The most ancient lineages are the prosimian and New World monkey adenoviruses (Podgorski et al 2018). On the next branches we can find the Old World monkey adenoviruses including members of Human mastadenovirus (HAdV) A, F and G (Gilson et al 2016;Pantó et al 2015;Podgorski et al 2016) (Fig.…”

Mating strategy is determinant of adenovirus prevalence in European bats

“…A handful of studies in humans suggest that transmission may need direct contact or at least a droplet spraying (such as those produced by coughing or sneezing) or aerosol [27][28][29]. The strong host specificity and the parallelism between host and AdVs phylogenies found for bats [16,30] and for primates [31] strongly suggest that cross-species switching of mastadenovirus are not frequent events although they have been detected in AdVs evolution [30].…”