Remnants of an Ancient Deltaretrovirus in the Genomes of Horseshoe Bats (Rhinolophidae)
by
Tomáš Hron 1,*
, Helena Farkašová 1,†, Robert J. Gifford 2, Petr Benda 3,4, Pavel Hulva 3,5, Tamás Görföl 6, Jan Pačes 1 and Daniel Elleder 1
Tomáš Hron 1,*, Helena Farkašová 1,†, Robert J. Gifford 2, Petr Benda 3,4, Pavel Hulva 3,5, Tamás Görföl 6, Jan Pačes 1 and Daniel Elleder 1
1
Institute of Molecular Genetics, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Videnska 1083, 14220 Prague, Czech Republic
2
MRC-University of Glasgow, Centre for Virus Research, 464 Bearsden Road, Glasgow G12 8TA, UK
3
Department of Zoology, Charles University, Vinicna 7, 12844 Prague, Czech Republic
4
Department of Zoology, National Museum (Natural History), Vaclavske nam. 68, 11579 Prague, Czech Republic
5
Department of Biology and Ecology, University of Ostrava, Chitussiho 10, 71000 Ostrava, Czech Republic
6
Department of Zoology, Hungarian Natural History Musem, Baross Utca 13, 1088 Budapest, Hungary
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
Current address: Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH, 4 Center Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Viruses 2018, 10(4), 185; https://doi.org/10.3390/v10040185
Received: 28 February 2018 / Revised: 31 March 2018 / Accepted: 7 April 2018 / Published: 10 April 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Homage to Jan Svoboda: Recent Advances in Topics Pioneered by his Prague School)
Endogenous retrovirus (ERV) sequences provide a rich source of information about the long-term interactions between retroviruses and their hosts. However, most ERVs are derived from a subset of retrovirus groups, while ERVs derived from certain other groups remain extremely rare. In particular, only a single ERV sequence has been identified that shows evidence of being related to an ancient Deltaretrovirus, despite the large number of vertebrate genome sequences now available. In this report, we identify a second example of an ERV sequence putatively derived from a past deltaretroviral infection, in the genomes of several species of horseshoe bats (Rhinolophidae). This sequence represents a fragment of viral genome derived from a single integration. The time of the integration was estimated to be 11–19 million years ago. This finding, together with the previously identified endogenous Deltaretrovirus in long-fingered bats (Miniopteridae), suggest a close association of bats with ancient deltaretroviruses.
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Keywords:
retrovirus; evolution; Deltaretrovirus; endogenous retrovirus; genomics; bats
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MDPI and ACS Style
Hron, T.; Farkašová, H.; Gifford, R.J.; Benda, P.; Hulva, P.; Görföl, T.; Pačes, J.; Elleder, D. Remnants of an Ancient Deltaretrovirus in the Genomes of Horseshoe Bats (Rhinolophidae). Viruses 2018, 10, 185.
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