Department of Microbiology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla CA, USA.
J Gen Virol. 2022 Jun;103(6). doi: 10.1099/jgv.0.001772.
Echinoderms are a phylum of marine invertebrates that include model organisms, keystone species, and animals commercially harvested for seafood. Despite their scientific, ecological, and economic importance, there is little known about the diversity of RNA viruses that infect echinoderms compared to other invertebrates. We screened over 900 transcriptomes and viral metagenomes to characterize the RNA virome of 38 echinoderm species from all five classes (Crinoidea, Holothuroidea, Asteroidea, Ophiuroidea and Echinoidea). We identified 347 viral genome fragments that were classified to genera and families within nine viral orders - and . We compared the relative viral representation across three life stages (embryo, larvae, adult) and characterized the gene content of contigs which encoded complete or near-complete genomes. The proportion of viral reads in a given transcriptome was not found to significantly differ between life stages though the majority of viral contigs were discovered from transcriptomes of adult tissue. This study illuminates the biodiversity of RNA viruses from echinoderms, revealing the occurrence of viral groups in natural populations.
棘皮动物是一类海洋无脊椎动物，包括模式生物、关键物种和商业上用于海鲜的动物。尽管它们在科学、生态和经济方面具有重要意义，但与其他无脊椎动物相比，人们对感染棘皮动物的 RNA 病毒的多样性知之甚少。我们筛选了超过 900 个转录组和病毒宏基因组，以描述来自五个纲（海百合纲、海参纲、海星纲、蛇尾纲和海胆纲）的 38 种棘皮动物的 RNA 病毒组。我们鉴定了 347 个病毒基因组片段，这些片段被分类为 9 个病毒目中的属和科——、、、、、、和。我们比较了三个生命阶段（胚胎、幼虫、成体）的相对病毒代表性，并对编码完整或近乎完整基因组的连续序列的基因含量进行了特征描述。在给定的转录组中，病毒读段的比例在生命阶段之间没有发现显著差异，尽管大多数病毒连续序列是从成年组织的转录组中发现的。这项研究揭示了棘皮动物中 RNA 病毒的生物多样性，揭示了病毒组在自然种群中的存在。
