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Variation in predicted COVID-19 risk among lemurs and lorises.

ABSTRACT: The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which in humans leads to the disease COVID-19, has caused global disruption and more than 1.5 million fatalities since it first emerged in late 2019. As we write, infection rates are currently at their highest point globally and are rising extremely rapidly in some areas due to more infectious variants. The primary viral target is the cellular receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2). Recent sequence analyses of the ACE2 gene predicts that many nonhuman primates are also likely to be highly susceptible to infection. However, the anticipated risk is not equal across the Order. Furthermore, some taxonomic groups show high ACE2 amino acid conservation, while others exhibit high variability at this locus. As an example of the latter, analyses of strepsirrhine primate ACE2 sequences to date indicate large variation among lemurs and lorises compared to other primate clades despite low sampling effort. Here, we report ACE2 gene and protein sequences for 71 individual strepsirrhines, spanning 51 species and 19 genera. Our study reinforces previous results and finds additional variability in other strepsirrhine species, and suggests several clades of lemurs have high potential susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Troublingly, some species, including the rare and Endangered aye-aye ( Daubentonia madagascariensis ), as well as those in the genera Avahi and Propithecus , may be at high risk. Given that lemurs are endemic to Madagascar and among the primates at highest risk of extinction globally, further understanding of the potential threat of COVID-19 to their health should be a conservation priority. All feasible actions should be taken to limit their exposure to SARS-CoV-2.

SUBMITTER: Melin AD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7872355 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Variation in predicted COVID-19 risk among lemurs and lorises.

Melin Amanda D AD Orkin Joseph D JD Janiak Mareike C MC Valenzuela Alejandro A Kuderna Lukas L Marrone Frank F Ramangason Hasinala H Horvath Julie E JE Roos Christian C Kitchener Andrew C AC Khor Chiea Chuen CC Lim Weng Khong WK Lee Jessica G H JGH Tan Patrick P Umapathy Govindhaswamy G Raveendran Muthuswamy M Harris R Alan RA Gut Ivo I Gut Marta M Lizano Esther E Nadler Tilo T Zinner Dietmar D Johnson Steig E SE Jarvis Erich D ED Fedrigo Olivier O Wu Dongdong D Zhang Guojie G Farh Kyle Kai-How KK Rogers Jeffrey J Marques-Bonet Tomas T Navarro Arcadi A Juan David D Arora Paramjit S PS Higham James P JP

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 20210203

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which in humans leads to the disease COVID-19, has caused global disruption and more than 1.5 million fatalities since it first emerged in late 2019. As we write, infection rates are currently at their highest point globally and are rising extremely rapidly in some areas due to more infectious variants. The primary viral target is the cellular receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2). Recent sequence analyses of the <i>ACE2</i> gene predicts that many non ...[more]

PMID: 33564767

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Project description:BackgroundSocial tolerance strongly influences the patterns of affiliation and aggression in animal societies. However, not much is known about the variation of social tolerance in species living in dispersed social systems that combine solitary foraging activities with the need of coordinating social interactions with conspecifics on a regular basis. This study aims to investigate the sources of variation in social tolerance within a Malagasy primate radiation with dispersed social systems, the mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.). Six mouse lemur species were selected as model species that belong to three different taxonomic clades, live in two types of forest environments (dry and humid), and differed in this study with respect to their reproductive activity. Six male-female and six male-male dyads of each species were tested temporarily in a standardized social encounter paradigm in Madagascar to collect data on joint use of space, non-agonistic body contacts, aggression rates, the number of conflicts and the establishment of intra- and intersexual dominance.ResultsMale-female dyads of the six species differed significantly in the frequency of affiliative and agonistic behaviors. In contrast, the variations between male-male dyads could not be explained by one parameter only, but clade membership, forest type, reproductive state as well as species were all suggested to be partially influential. Only one species (Microcebus mamiratra) showed signals of unambiguous female dominance in all male-female dyads, whereas the others had no or only a few dyads with female dominance.ConclusionsVariations in social tolerance and its consequences are most likely influenced by two factors, ecology (via forest type) and physiology (via reproductive activity), and only to a lesser extent by clade membership. The study suggests that mouse lemur females have higher aggression rates and more agonistic conflicts with males when females in the population are reproducing, at least in resource-rich humid forests. The study confirms a high degree of social plasticity between species in these small solitary foragers that supports their taxonomic distinctiveness and requires further scientific attention.

Dataset Information

Variation in predicted COVID-19 risk among lemurs and lorises.

Publications

Variation in predicted COVID-19 risk among lemurs and lorises.

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