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. 2015 Oct 16;10(10):e0140916.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0140916. eCollection 2015.

Identification of Two Novel Members of the Tentative Genus Wukipolyomavirus in Wild Rodents

Juozas Nainys  1 , Albertas Timinskas  1 , Julia Schneider  2 , Rainer G Ulrich  2 , Alma Gedvilaite  1
Affiliations

Identification of Two Novel Members of the Tentative Genus Wukipolyomavirus in Wild Rodents

Juozas Nainys et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Two novel polyomaviruses (PyVs) were identified in kidney and chest-cavity fluid samples of wild bank voles (Myodes glareolus) and common voles (Microtus arvalis) collected in Germany. All cloned and sequenced genomes had the typical PyV genome organization, including putative open reading frames for early regulatory proteins large T antigen and small T antigen on one strand and for structural late proteins (VP1, VP2 and VP3) on the other strand. Virus-like particles (VLPs) were generated by yeast expression of the VP1 protein of both PyVs. VLP-based ELISA and large T-antigen sequence-targeted polymerase-chain reaction investigations demonstrated signs of infection of these novel PyVs in about 42% of bank voles and 18% of common voles. In most cases only viral DNA, but not VP1-specific antibodies were detected. In additional animals exclusively VP1-specific antibodies, but no viral DNA was detected, indicative for virus clearance. Phylogenetic and clustering analysis including all known PyV genomes placed novel bank vole and common vole PyVs amongst members of the tentative Wukipolymavirus genus. The other known four rodent PyVs, Murine PyV and Hamster PyV, and Murine pneumotropic virus and Mastomys PyV belong to different phylogenetic clades, tentatively named Orthopolyomavirus I and Orthopolyomavirus II, respectively. In conclusion, the finding of novel vole-borne PyVs may suggest an evolutionary origin of ancient wukipolyomaviruses in rodents and may offer the possibility to develop a vole-based animal model for human wukipolyomaviruses.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Schematic presentation of the genome organization of BVPyV (A) and CVPyV (B) and alignment of ORI region sequences of BVPyV strains (KS/14/281 and KS/13/999) and CVPyV strain KS/13/947 (C).
The positions of LTag introns are shown uncolored. Putative LTag binding sites (GAGGC pentanucleotides) are shown in red; AT-rich region/TATA box is shown in green; palindromic repeats shown in magenta; early palindrome (EP) region is underlined; LTag ATG codon is shown in blue (according [38, 39]).
Fig 2
Fig 2. Detection of BVPyV (A) and CVPyV (B) VP1 protein VLP formation by electron microscopy.
Bars, 100 nm.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Phylogenetic tree of 98 representatives of Polyomaviridae family obtained using ML methods for concatenated LTag, STag, VP1 and VP2 protein sequence alignment.
The tree is rooted at the most distant PyVs, namely fish polyomaviruses. Numbers at the nodes indicate statistical support (bootstrap values) for branch placements. Red triangles mark taxons with least confidence in their placement, as determined using RogueNaRok. The five lineages: Orthopolyomavirus I, Orthopolyomavirus II, Avipolyomavirus, Malawipolyomavirus and Wukipolyomavirus are highlighted in different colors. Rodent polyomaviruses Murine PyV (MPyV), Hamster PyV (HaPyV), Murine pneumotropic virus (MPtV) and Mastomys PyV (MasPyV) are labeled in green. The novel viruses BVPyV and CVPyV are labeled in blue.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Relationships between PyV genomes, as shown at various cutoff similarity values.
(A) cutoff p = 1x10-10: all PyVs are nested indicating a common nature of all PyVs (not excluding fishpolyomaviruses); (B) cutoff p = 1x10-39: all PyVs are nested, except fishpolyomaviruses; (C) cutoff p = 1x10-56: Avipolyomaviruses are separated; (D) cutoff p = 1x10-69: Wukipolyomaviruses are separated; (E) cutoff p = 1x10-86: Orthopolyomaviruses are divided into 3 main lineages—Orthopolyomavirus I, Orthopolyomavirus II and Malawipolyomavirus. To note, 1x10-86 level indicates closest relationships, while 1x10-10—most distant. Grey lines connect pairs of similar PyV genomes at selected cutoff level of p.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Sliding window analysis of genome sequences specific to CVPyV and BVPyV compared to other PyVs (%).
The short fragments of a length w = 50 nt of BVPyV and CVPyV genomes were compared with w-mers of all PyV genomes by means of a sliding-window procedure. Only pairs of w-mers which had higher count of identical nucleotides in their alignment than some predefined critical value n = 30 when aligned were determined as similar. VP1, VP2, VP3, LTag, and STag genes are labeled with different colors. The nucleotide positions in genome are indicated at the bottom.
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Grants and funding

This work was funded by the European Social Fund under National Integrated Program Biotechnology & Biopharmacy, grant VP1-3.1-SMM- 08-K01-005. The investigations in the lab of RGU were supported by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research through the National Research Platform for zoonoses (Project “Netzwerk Nagetier-übertragene Pathogene”, NaÜPa-Net2, grant no 01KI1303).

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