Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness-ACDP, CSIRO Health & Biosecurity, East Geelong, VIC, Australia.
Bio21 Institute and the School of Biosciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Transbound Emerg Dis. 2022 Mar;69(2):895-902. doi: 10.1111/tbed.14030. Epub 2021 Mar 16.
The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is one of the most devastating invasive species in Australia. Since the 1950s, myxoma virus (MYXV) and rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) have been used to manage overabundant rabbit populations. Resistance to MYXV was observed within a few years of the release. More recently, resistance to lethal RHDV infection has also been reported, undermining the efficiency of landscape-scale rabbit control. Previous studies suggest that genetic resistance to lethal RHDV infection may differ locally between populations, yet the mechanisms of genetic resistance remain poorly understood. Here, we used genotyping by sequencing (GBS) data representing a reduced representation of the genome, to investigate Australian rabbit populations. Our aims were to understand the relationship between populations and identify possible genomic signatures of selection for RHDV resistance. One population we investigated had previously been reported to show levels of resistance to lethal RHDV infection. This population was compared to three other populations with lower or no previously reported RHDV resistance. We identified a set of novel candidate genes that could be involved in host-pathogen interactions such as virus binding and infection processes. These genes did not overlap with previous studies on RHDV resistance carried out in different rabbit populations, suggesting that multiple mechanisms are feasible. These findings provide useful insights into the different potential mechanisms of genetic resistance to RHDV virus which will inform future functional studies in this area.
欧洲兔（Oryctolagus cuniculus）是澳大利亚最具破坏性的入侵物种之一。自 20 世纪 50 年代以来，兔粘液瘤病毒（MYXV）和兔出血症病毒（RHDV）已被用于控制过度繁殖的兔群。在病毒释放后的几年内就观察到了对 MYXV 的抗性。最近，也有报道称对致死性 RHDV 感染的抗性，这破坏了景观尺度上对兔子的有效控制。先前的研究表明，对致死性 RHDV 感染的遗传抗性可能在不同种群之间存在局部差异，但遗传抗性的机制仍知之甚少。在这里，我们使用代表基因组部分代表性的测序（GBS）数据进行基因分型，来研究澳大利亚兔种群。我们的目的是了解种群之间的关系，并确定 RHDV 抗性的可能基因组选择特征。我们研究的一个种群以前曾被报道显示出对致死性 RHDV 感染的抗性水平。该种群与另外三个先前报道的对 RHDV 抗性较低或没有抗性的种群进行了比较。我们鉴定了一组可能参与宿主-病原体相互作用的新候选基因，例如病毒结合和感染过程。这些基因与以前在不同兔种群中进行的 RHDV 抗性研究没有重叠，这表明有多种机制是可行的。这些发现为研究对 RHDV 病毒的遗传抗性的不同潜在机制提供了有用的见解，这将为该领域的未来功能研究提供信息。
