Novel Avulaviruses in Penguins, Antarctica

Abstract

We identified 3 novel and distinct avulaviruses from Gentoo penguins sampled in Antarctica. We isolated these viruses and sequenced their complete genomes; serologic assays demonstrated that the viruses do not have cross-reactivity between them. Our findings suggest that these 3 new viruses represent members of 3 novel avulavirus species.

Keywords: Antarctica; avian paramyxovirus; avulavirus; penguins; viruses; zoonoses.

Figure

Bayesian phylogenetic tree based on concatenated nucleoprotein, phosphoprotein, matrix protein, fusion protein, hemagglutinin-neuraminidase protein, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase protein gene sequences of 80 avulaviruses analyzed in a study of avulaviruses in penguins, Antarctica. Mumps virus was used as outgroup. Bold indicates the 3 novel viruses isolates in this study. The best-fit model of nucleotide substitution was generalized time reversible plus gamma plus invariant sites. The analysis was considered complete if the average SD of the split frequencies was <0.01 and effective sample size was >200. The values represent the posterior probabilities of each node. Scale bar indicates nucleotide substitutions per site. APMV, avian paramyxovirus; APVA, Antarctic penguin virus A; APVB, Antarctic penguin virus B; Antarctic penguin virus C; MuV, mumps virus.