The total assemblage of viruses on earth is termed the ‘virosphere’, the vast majority of which is undescribed. It is futile to attempt to predict viral emergence events until there has been a dramatic increase in the number of viruses identified and sequenced. Hitherto, this task was greatly hampered by a strong sampling bias toward pathogens that cause disease in humans or in economically important animals and plants. This is set to change with the development of whole transcriptome (RNA) shotgun sequencing. RNA-Seq is a next generation sequencing technique that reveals the presence and quantity of transcriptomes, and can reveal the entire virus composition within an individual (i.e. the virome), as well as their abundance, as opposed to being limited to a specific pathogen. Using a ‘meta-transcriptomics’ approach I provide a comprehensive view of viruses in aquatic hosts. Viruses are abundant in marine and freshwater environments. Crucially, fish likely harbour a greater diversity of viruses than any other class of vertebrate, and all virus families previously thought to only infect mammals have recently been found in bony fish. These viruses are the likely progenitors of viruses that infect a broad range of hosts, including mammals, amphibians and birds. The recent identification of hepadnaviruses in fish has revealed many more instances of host jumping than previously realised, including from aquatic to terrestrial vertebrates. Marine mammals, such as whales, share this aquatic environment and so provide an opportunity to study viruses across diverse host types and draw comparisons with their terrestrial counterparts.
The total assemblage of viruses on earth is termed the ‘virosphere’, the vast majority of which is undescribed. It is futile to attempt to predict viral emergence events until there has been a dramatic increase in the number of viruses identified and sequenced. Hitherto, this task was greatly hampered by a strong sampling bias toward pathogens that cause disease in humans or in economically important animals and plants. This is set to change with the development of whole transcriptome (RNA) shotgun sequencing. RNA-Seq is a next generation sequencing technique that reveals the presence and quantity of transcriptomes, and can reveal the entire virus composition within an individual (i.e. the virome), as well as their abundance, as opposed to being limited to a specific pathogen. Using a ‘meta-transcriptomics’ approach I provide a comprehensive view of viruses in aquatic hosts. Viruses are abundant in marine and freshwater environments. Crucially, fish likely harbour a greater diversity of viruses than any other class of vertebrate, and all virus families previously thought to only infect mammals have recently been found in bony fish. These viruses are the likely progenitors of viruses that infect a broad range of hosts, including mammals, amphibians and birds. The recent identification of hepadnaviruses in fish has revealed many more instances of host jumping than previously realised, including from aquatic to terrestrial vertebrates. Marine mammals, such as whales, share this aquatic environment and so provide an opportunity to study viruses across diverse host types and draw comparisons with their terrestrial counterparts.
2B7 - Building 2 GSA2018_APCC6 GSACC62018@canberra.edu.auTechnical Issues?
If you're experiencing playback problems, try adjusting the quality or refreshing the page.
Questions for Speakers?
Use the Q&A tab to submit questions that may be addressed in follow-up sessions.
