Identification of a reptile lyssavirus in Anolis allogus provided novel insights into lyssavirus evolution

• Published in: Virus genes Vol. 57; no. 1; pp. 40 - 49
• Main Authors: Horie, Masayuki, Akashi, Hiroshi, Kawata, Masakado, Tomonaga, Keizo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.02.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: 3' Untranslated regions; Anolis; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; brain; Divergence; Evolution; frogs; Gene mapping; Genomes; Ipomoea lobata; Lyssavirus; Medical Microbiology; mRNA; Nucleotides; Original Paper; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Plant Sciences; reptiles; RNA viruses; sequence analysis; topology; trees; Virology; Viruses; Lyssavirus; Metaviromics; Anolis allogus
• ISSN: 0920-8569; 1572-994X; 1572-994X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11262-020-01803-y

Lyssaviruses (genus Lyssavirus ) are negative-strand RNA viruses belonging to the family Rhabdoviridae . Although a lyssa-like virus (frog lyssa-like virus 1 [FLLV-1]), which is distantly related to lyssaviruses, was recently identified in frogs, a large phylogenetic gap exists between those viruses, and thus the evolution of lyssaviruses is unclear. In this study, we detected a lyssa-like virus from publicly available RNA-seq data obtained using the brain and skin of Anolis allogus (Spanish flag anole), which was designated anole lyssa-like virus 1 (ALLV-1), and determined its complete coding sequence. Via mapping analysis, we demonstrated that ALLV-1 was actively replicating in the original brain and skin samples. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that ALLV-1 is more closely related to lyssaviruses than FLLV-1. Overall, the topology of the tree is compatible with that of hosts, suggesting the long-term co-divergence of lyssa-like and lyssaviruses and vertebrates. The ψ region, which is a long 3′ untranslated region of unknown origin present in the G mRNA of lyssaviruses (approximately 400–700 nucleotides), is also present in the genome of ALLV-1, but it is much shorter (approximately 180 nucleotides) than those of lyssaviruses. Interestingly, FLLV-1 lacks the ψ region, suggesting that the ψ region was acquired after the divergence of the FLLV-1 and ALLV-1/lyssavirus lineages. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to identify a lyssa-like virus in reptiles, and thus, our findings provide novel insights into the evolution of lyssaviruses.