Analysis of the virus population present in equine faeces indicates the presence of hundreds of uncharacterized virus genomes.
Virus DNA was isolated from horse faeces and cloned in a sequence-independent fashion. 268 clones were sequenced and 178140 nucleotides of sequence obtained. Statistical analysis suggests the library contains 17560 distinct clones derived from up to 233 different virus genomes. TBLASTX analysis showed that 32% of the clones had significant identity to GenBank entries. Of these 63% were viral; 20% bacterial; 7% archaeal; 6% eukarya; and 5% were related to mobile genetic elements. Fifty-two percent of the virus identities were with Siphoviridae; 26% unclassified phages; 17% Myoviridae; 4% Podoviridae; and one clone (2%) was a vertebrate Orthopoxvirus. Genes coding for predicted virus structural proteins, proteases, glycosidases and nucleic acid-binding proteins were common.
Cann
Alan James
AJ
Department of Infection Immunity and Inflammation, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 9HN, UK.
Fandrich
Sarah Elizabeth
SE
Heaphy
Shaun
S
D000818:Animals; D010582:Bacteriophage lambda / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005243:Feces / Q000821:virology; D015723:Gene Library; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006736:Horses / Q000821:virology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D014780:Viruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification
D004279:DNA, Viral
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002 Oct 29;99(22):14250-5
12384570
Cell. 2003 Apr 18;113(2):171-82
12705866
FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2004 Feb 16;231(2):153-8
15027428
Syst Biol. 2001 Aug;50(4):470-8
12116647
Science. 1984 Apr 27;224(4647):409-11
17741220
MD Comput. 1997 Jul-Aug;14(4):306-17
9230594
Nature. 2001 Feb 1;409(6820):603-7
11214316
Nature. 1999 Jun 10;399(6736):541-8
10376593
J Bacteriol. 2003 Oct;185(20):6220-3
14526037
Mol Microbiol. 2003 Jul;49(2):277-300
12886937
Microbiol Mol Biol Rev. 2000 Mar;64(1):69-114
10704475
Curr Opin Microbiol. 2003 Oct;6(5):506-11
14572544
Nature. 2001 Feb 1;409(6820):607-10
11214317
Trends Microbiol. 2001 Mar;9(3):137-44
11303502