title: Local Virus Extinctions following a Host Population Bottleneck.
abstract: A small number of African green monkeys (AGMs) were introduced into the Caribbean from West Africa in the 1600s. To determine the impact of this population bottleneck on the AGM virome, we used metagenomics to compare the viral nucleic acids in the plasma of 43 wild AGMs from West Africa (Gambia) to those in 44 AGMs from the Caribbean (St. Kitts and Nevis). Three viruses were detected in the blood of Gambian primates: simian immunodeficiency virus (SIVagm; in 42% of animals), a novel simian pegivirus (SPgVagm; in 7% of animals), and numerous novel simian anelloviruses (in 100% of animals). Only anelloviruses were detected in the Caribbean AGMs with a prevalence and levels of viral genetic diversity similar to those in the Gambian animals. A host population bottleneck therefore resulted in the exclusion of adult-acquired SIV and pegivirus from the Caribbean AGMs. The successful importation of AGM anelloviruses into the Caribbean may be the result of their early transmission to infants, very high prevalence in African AGMs, and frequent coinfections with as many as 11 distinct variants.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The extent to which viruses can persist in small isolated populations depends on multiple host, viral, and environmental factors. The absence of prior infections may put an immunologically naive population at risk for disease outbreaks. Isolated populations originating from a small number of founder individuals are therefore considered at increased risk following contact with populations with a greater variety of viruses. Here, we compared the plasma virome of West African green monkeys to that in their descendants after importation of a small number of animals to the Caribbean. A lentivirus and a pegivirus were found in the West African population but not in the Caribbean population. Highly diverse anelloviruses were found in both populations. A small founder population, limited to infants and young juvenile monkeys, may have eliminated the sexually transmitted viruses from the Caribbean AGMs, while anelloviruses, acquired at an earlier age, persisted through the host population bottleneck.
authors.affiliation: Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, California, USA Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Beatrix
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kapusinszky
authors.affiliation: Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, California, USA University of San Francisco, Department of Biology, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Usha
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Mulvaney
authors.affiliation: Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, California, USA.
authors.forename: Anna J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Jasinska
authors.affiliation: Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, California, USA Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Xutao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, California, USA.
authors.forename: Nelson
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Freimer
authors.affiliation: Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, California, USA Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA delwarte@medicine.ucsf.edu.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6296-4484
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Delwart
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops / Q000821:virology*; D053476:Extinction, Biological; D016679:Genome, Viral; D010802:Phylogeny; D018406:Virus Physiological Phenomena