Fecal Viral Diversity of Captive and Wild Tasmanian Devils Characterized Using Virion-Enriched Metagenomics and Metatranscriptomics.

ABSTRACT: The Tasmanian devil is an endangered carnivorous marsupial threatened by devil facial tumor disease (DFTD). While research on DFTD has been extensive, little is known about viruses in devils and whether any are of potential conservation relevance for this endangered species. Using both metagenomics based on virion enrichment and sequence-independent amplification (virion-enriched metagenomics) and metatranscriptomics based on bulk RNA sequencing, we characterized and compared the fecal viromes of captive and wild devils. A total of 54 fecal samples collected from two captive and four wild populations were processed for virome characterization using both approaches. In total, 24 novel marsupial-related viruses, comprising a sapelovirus, astroviruses, rotaviruses, picobirnaviruses, parvoviru

SUBMITTER: Chong R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6532096 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature