title: Characterisation of the Equine adenovirus 2 genome.
abstract: Equine adenovirus 2 (EAdV-2) is one of two serotypes of adenoviruses known to infect equines. Initial studies did not associate EAdV-2 infections with any specific clinical syndromes, although more recent evidence suggests that EAdV-2 may be associated with clinical and subclinical gastrointestinal infections of foals and adults respectively. In contrast, Equine adenovirus 1 is well recognised as a pathogen associated with upper respiratory tract infections of horses. In this study the complete genome sequence of EAdV-2 is reported. As expected, genes common to the adenoviruses were identified. Phylogenetic reconstructions using selected EAdV-2 genes confirmed the classification of this virus within the Mastadenovirus genus, and supported the hypothesis that EAdV-2 and EAdV-1 have evolved from separate lineages within the adenoviruses. One spliced open reading frame was identified that encoded for a polypeptide with high similarity to the pIX and E1b_55K adenovirus homologues and was designated pIX_E1b_55K. In addition to this fused version of E1b_55K, a separate E1b_55K encoding gene was also identified. These polypeptides do not appear to have evolved from a gene duplication event as the fused and unfused E1b_55K were most similar to E1b_55K homologues from the Atadenovirus and Mastadenovirus genera respectively. The results of this study suggest that EAdV-2 has an unusual evolutionary history that warrants further investigation.
authors.affiliation: The University of South Australia, School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, Adelaide 5001, SA, Australia.
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Giles
authors.affiliation: Charles Sturt University, School of Biomedical Sciences, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia.
authors.forename: Thiru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vanniasinkam
authors.affiliation: The University of South Australia, School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, Adelaide 5001, SA, Australia.
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barton
authors.affiliation: The University of Queensland, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia. Electronic address: t.mahony@uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Timothy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Mahony
mesh_terms: D000256:Adenoviridae / Q000235:genetics*; D000257:Adenoviridae Infections / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D016679:Genome, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / Q000662:veterinary; D006734:Horse Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D006736:Horses; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment / Q000662:veterinary; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000662:veterinary
keywords: Complete genome; Equine; Equine adenovirus 2; Next generation sequencing