Detection of novel RNA viruses from free-living gorillas, Republic of the Congo: genetic diversity of picobirnaviruses

Abstract

Most of the emerging infectious diseases reported so far originated in wildlife. Therefore, virological surveillance of animals and particularly great apes is of great interest to establish the repertory of viruses associated with healthy hosts. This will further help to identify the emergence of new viruses and predict the possibility of interspecies transmission. In this study, we performed shotgun viral metagenomics on stool samples collected from seventeen free-living wild gorillas from the Republic of the Congo. The analysis revealed the presence of novel RNA viruses (picobirnaviruses, partitivirus, and Picornavirales (posa-like and dicistrovirus-like viruses)). Among these, picobirnavirus-related sequences were abundantly covered in the stools. Based on genetic variations both in capsid and RdRp proteins of picobirnaviruses, at least 96 variants were identified and most of them were novel. Among the 96, 22 variants had a nearly complete genome or segment. A comprehensive sequence analysis identified a potential new genogroup/genetic cluster and the presence of a short linear amino acid motif (ExxRxNxxxE) in a hypothetical protein. The sequence analysis of posa-like virus and dicistrovirus showed that these two viruses were novel members in the respective viral families. In conclusion, the identification of novel RNA viruses and their genetic diversity increases our knowledge about viruses that are associated with stools of wild gorillas and contributes to the initiatives in the search for potential emerging zoonotic viruses.

The Husavirus Posa-Like Viruses in China, and a New Group of Picornavirales

“…The available posa-like virus sequences cluster near the family Marnaviridae. Our results confirmed the formation of a novel group within the Picornavirales, and posa-like viruses could be a distinct novel family within the Picornavirales [11,39]. A large number of novel branches, such as the kelp fly virus-related group, contain unclassified Picornavirales genomes.…”

Detection of dicistroviruses RNA in blood of febrile Tanzanian children

“…Indeed, the seasonality clustering observed in this study, may suggest vector-borne transmission although others transmission routes cannot be ruled out. A zoonotic reservoir is also possible since DicVs have been detected in stools from various non-human primates (such as gorillas [24]) as well as giant pandas [25], and bats [26], which also raises the possibility of a faecal-oral or sylvatic transmission cycle. Furthermore, the presence of DicV sequences were recently reported in the blood of a fruit bat captured in 2015 from the Republic of Congo [27].…”

Next-Generation Sequencing on Insectivorous Bat Guano: An Accurate Tool to Identify Arthropod Viruses of Potential Agricultural Concern

“…Although viruses belonging in the Dicistroviridae family have been described worldwide, only a few studies have been carried out in African mainland [12,23,29,30,[45][46][47]. In this study, we described the full-length sequences of two Cripavirus (BSRV-like and ALPV) and one Aparavirus (ABPV) obtained from the faeces of insectivorous bat species (Hipposideros caffer) collected in a cave dwelling in Zimbabwe.…”

“…Although numbers of them were identified in insects [12,[17][18][19][20][21][22], some were found in mammalian stools, including human beings. However, the presence of such viruses in mammalian faeces were likely linked to their dietary habits [23][24][25][26][27][28].…”