Abstract
Viral diversity associated with Antarctic wildlife remains poorly studied. Nonetheless, over the past 5 years, there has been a concerted effort using viral metagenomics approaches to identify and characterize viruses associated with Antarctic pinniped and avian species. Here we used a viral metagenomics approach to identify circular DNA viruses in buccal swab samples from Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) breeding on Livingston Island, Antarctica during the 2016/2017 field season. We identified two new lineages of anelloviruses, torque teno Arctocephalus gazella virus (TTAgV)-1 (2083 nts) and -2 (2127–2143 nts), which are most closely related to and cluster with a previously identified anellovirus associated with California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) sharing ~ 60% genome-wide pairwise identity. The ORF1 of TTAgVs share 26–41% amino acid similarity to the ORF1 of other previously identified pinniped-associated anelloviruses.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 719-723 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Virus Genes |
Volume | 54 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 1 2018 |
Keywords
- Anelloviridae
- Antarctica
- Arctocephalus gazella
- Pinniped
- SsDNA virus
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Molecular Biology
- Genetics
- Virology