Koala Retrovirus in Northern Australia Shows a Mixture of Stable Endogenization and Exogenous Lineage Diversification within Fragmented Koala Populations.

ABSTRACT: The koala population in northern Australia has become increasingly fragmented due to natural and man-made barriers and interventions. This situation has created a unique opportunity to study both endogenous and exogenous koala retrovirus (KoRV). To determine the impact that population isolation has had on KoRV diversity in Queensland, 272 koalas from six fragmented koala populations were profiled for their KoRV provirus across two natural biogeographical barriers (the St Lawrence Gap and the Brisbane Valley Barrier), one man-made geographical barrier (the city of Brisbane) and two translocation events (the single movement of koalas to an island and the repeated movement of koalas into a koala sanctuary). Analysis revealed that all koalas tested were KoRV-A positive, with 90 - 96% of the de

SUBMITTER: Quigley BL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8092702 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature