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A case for the ancient origin of coronaviruses.

ABSTRACT: Coronaviruses are found in a diverse array of bat and bird species, which are believed to act as natural hosts. Molecular clock dating analyses of coronaviruses suggest that the most recent common ancestor of these viruses existed around 10,000 years ago. This relatively young age is in sharp contrast to the ancient evolutionary history of their putative natural hosts, which began diversifying tens of millions of years ago. Here, we attempted to resolve this discrepancy by applying more realistic evolutionary models that have previously revealed the ancient evolutionary history of other RNA viruses. By explicitly modeling variation in the strength of natural selection over time and thereby improving the modeling of substitution saturation, we found that the time to the most recent ancestor common for all coronaviruses is likely far greater (millions of years) than the previously inferred range.

SUBMITTER: Wertheim JO

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3676139 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A case for the ancient origin of coronaviruses.

Wertheim Joel O JO Chu Daniel K W DK Peiris Joseph S M JS Kosakovsky Pond Sergei L SL Poon Leo L M LL

Journal of virology 20130417 12

Coronaviruses are found in a diverse array of bat and bird species, which are believed to act as natural hosts. Molecular clock dating analyses of coronaviruses suggest that the most recent common ancestor of these viruses existed around 10,000 years ago. This relatively young age is in sharp contrast to the ancient evolutionary history of their putative natural hosts, which began diversifying tens of millions of years ago. Here, we attempted to resolve this discrepancy by applying more realisti ...[more]

PMID: 23596293

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Project description:BACKGROUND: A key to understanding the evolution of the nervous system on a large phylogenetic scale is the identification of homologous neuronal types. Here, we focus this search on the sensory and motor neurons of bilaterians, exploiting their well-defined molecular signatures in vertebrates. Sensorimotor circuits in vertebrates are of two types: somatic (that sense the environment and respond by shaping bodily motions) and visceral (that sense the interior milieu and respond by regulating vital functions). These circuits differ by a small set of largely dedicated transcriptional determinants: Brn3 is expressed in many somatic sensory neurons, first and second order (among which mechanoreceptors are uniquely marked by the Brn3+/Islet1+/Drgx+ signature), somatic motoneurons uniquely co-express Lhx3/4 and Mnx1, while the vast majority of neurons, sensory and motor, involved in respiration, blood circulation or digestion are molecularly defined by their expression and dependence on the pan-visceral determinant Phox2b. RESULTS: We explore the status of the sensorimotor transcriptional code of vertebrates in mollusks, a lophotrochozoa clade that provides a rich repertoire of physiologically identified neurons. In the gastropods Lymnaea stagnalis and Aplysia californica, we show that homologues of Brn3, Drgx, Islet1, Mnx1, Lhx3/4 and Phox2b differentially mark neurons with mechanoreceptive, locomotory and cardiorespiratory functions. Moreover, in the cephalopod Sepia officinalis, we show that Phox2 marks the stellate ganglion (in line with the respiratory--that is, visceral--ancestral role of the mantle, its target organ), while the anterior pedal ganglion, which controls the prehensile and locomotory arms, expresses Mnx. CONCLUSIONS: Despite considerable divergence in overall neural architecture, a molecular underpinning for the functional allocation of neurons to interactions with the environment or to homeostasis was inherited from the urbilaterian ancestor by contemporary protostomes and deuterostomes.

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A case for the ancient origin of coronaviruses.

Publications

A case for the ancient origin of coronaviruses.

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