Diversity of Sea Star-Associated Densoviruses and Transcribed Endogenous Viral Elements of Densovirus Origin.

ABSTRACT: A viral etiology of sea star wasting syndrome (SSWS) was originally explored with virus-sized material challenge experiments, field surveys, and metagenomics, leading to the conclusion that a densovirus is the predominant DNA virus associated with this syndrome and, thus, the most promising viral candidate pathogen. Single-stranded DNA viruses are, however, highly diverse and pervasive among eukaryotic organisms, which we hypothesize may confound the association between densoviruses and SSWS. To test this hypothesis and assess the association of densoviruses with SSWS, we compiled past metagenomic data with new metagenomic-derived viral genomes from sea stars collected from Antarctica, California, Washington, and Alaska. We used 179 publicly available sea star transcriptomes to complement

SUBMITTER: Jackson EW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7737747 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature