title: Endogenous Gibbon Ape Leukemia Virus Identified in a Rodent (Melomys burtoni subsp.) from Wallacea (Indonesia).
abstract: Gibbon ape leukemia virus (GALV) and koala retrovirus (KoRV) most likely originated from a cross-species transmission of an ancestral retrovirus into koalas and gibbons via one or more intermediate as-yet-unknown hosts. A virus highly similar to GALV has been identified in an Australian native rodent (Melomys burtoni) after extensive screening of Australian wildlife. GALV-like viruses have also been discovered in several Southeast Asian species, although screening has not been extensive and viruses discovered to date are only distantly related to GALV. We therefore screened 26 Southeast Asian rodent species for KoRV- and GALV-like sequences, using hybridization capture and high-throughput sequencing, in the attempt to identify potential GALV and KoRV hosts. Only the individuals belonging to a newly discovered subspecies of Melomys burtoni from Indonesia were positive, yielding an endogenous provirus very closely related to a strain of GALV. The sequence of the critical receptor domain for GALV infection in the Indonesian M. burtoni subsp. was consistent with the susceptibility of the species to GALV infection. The second record of a GALV in M. burtoni provides further evidence that M. burtoni, and potentially other lineages within the widespread subfamily Murinae, may play a role in the spread of GALV-like viruses. The discovery of a GALV in the most western part of the Australo-Papuan distribution of M. burtoni, specifically in a transitional zone between Asia and Australia (Wallacea), may be relevant to the cross-species transmission to gibbons in Southeast Asia and broadens the known distribution of GALVs in wild rodents.
  
  
  
  Gibbon ape leukemia virus (GALV) and the koala retrovirus (KoRV) are very closely related, yet their hosts neither are closely related nor overlap geographically. Direct cross-species infection between koalas and gibbons is unlikely. Therefore, GALV and KoRV may have arisen via a cross-species transfer from an intermediate host whose range overlaps those of both gibbons and koalas. Using hybridization capture and high-throughput sequencing, we have screened a wide range of rodent candidate hosts from Southeast Asia for KoRV- and GALV-like sequences. Only a Melomys burtoni subspecies from Wallacea (Indonesia) was positive for GALV. We report the genome sequence of this newly identified GALV, the critical domain for infection of its potential cellular receptor, and its phylogenetic relationships with the other previously characterized GALVs. We hypothesize that Melomys burtoni, and potentially related lineages with an Australo-Papuan distribution, may have played a key role in cross-species transmission to other taxa.
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Niccolò
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Alfano
authors.affiliation: Conservation Genetics Unit, Institute of Botany, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium CIRAD, Campus international de Baillarguet, Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Michaux
authors.affiliation: CIRAD-CNRS, Centre d'Infectiologie Christophe Mérieux du Laos, Vientiane, Lao PDR.
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Morand
authors.affiliation: National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aplin
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Kyriakos
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsangaras
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Löber
authors.affiliation: National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier (ISEM-UMR 5554 UM2-CNRS-IRD), Montpellier University, Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Pierre-Henri
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Fabre
authors.affiliation: Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Research Center For Biology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Cibinong, Indonesia.
authors.forename: Yuli
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fitriana
authors.affiliation: Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Research Center For Biology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Cibinong, Indonesia.
authors.forename: Gono
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Semiadi
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.
authors.forename: Yasuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ishida
authors.affiliation: National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Kristofer M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Helgen
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.
authors.forename: Alfred L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Roca
authors.affiliation: Section on Directed Gene Transfer, Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Regulation, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Maribeth V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Eiden
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, Germany Department of Veterinary Medicine, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany greenwood@izw-berlin.de.
authors.forename: Alex D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Greenwood
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D007214:Indonesia; D017989:Leukemia Virus, Gibbon Ape / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D051189:Murinae / Q000821:virology*; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D011533:Proviruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012192:Retroviridae Infections / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D012376:Rodent Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA