Long-term host-pathogen evolution of endogenous beta- and gammaretroviruses in mouse lemurs with little evidence of recent retroviral introgression.

ABSTRACT: Madagascar's flora and fauna have evolved in relative isolation since the island split from the African and Indian continents. When the last common ancestors of lemurs left Africa between 40 and 70 million years ago, they carried a subset of the viral diversity of the mainland population within them, which continued to evolve throughout the lemur radiation. Relative to other primate radiations, we know very little about the past or present viral diversity of lemurs, particularly mouse lemurs. Using high-throughput sequencing, we identified two gammaretroviruses and three betaretroviruses in the genomes of four species of wild mouse lemurs. The two gammaretroviruses and two betaretroviruses have not previously been described. One betaretrovirus was previously identified. All identified viru

SUBMITTER: Kessler SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9825726 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature