1. Evolutionary Biology
  2. Genetics and Genomics

Recurrent evolution of high virulence in isolated populations of a DNA virus

  1. Tom Hill  Is a corresponding author
  2. Robert L Unckless
  1. University of Kansas, United States
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.58931
Share this article
Cite this article
  1. Tom Hill
  2. Robert L Unckless
(2020)
Recurrent evolution of high virulence in isolated populations of a DNA virus
eLife 9:e58931.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.58931
  2. Download BibTeX
  3. Download .RIS

Abstract

Hosts and viruses are constantly evolving in response to each other: as a host attempts to suppress a virus, the virus attempts to evade and suppress the host's immune system. Here we describe the recurrent evolution of a virulent strain of a DNA virus which infects multiple Drosophila species. Specifically, we identified two distinct viral types that differ 100-fold in viral titer in infected individuals, with similar differences observed in multiple species. Our analysis suggests that one of the viral types appears to have recurrently evolved at least 4 times in the past ~30,000 years, 3X in Arizona and once in another geographically distinct species. This recurrent evolution may be facilitated by an effective mutation rate which increases as each prior mutation increases viral titer and effective population size. The higher titer viral type suppresses the host immune system and an increased virulence compared to the low viral titer type.

Data availability

Sequencing data have been deposited on the NCBI SRA under the study accession: SRP187240Genomes used in this study are available at the following accessions:Drosophila innubila - GCF_004354385.1Drosophila innubila Nudivirus - GCF_004132165.1Drosophila azteca - GCA_005876895.1

The following data sets were generated
    1. Hill T
    2. Unckless RL
    (2020) Drosophila Sky Island data analysis
    Dryad Digital Repository, doi:10.5061/dryad.2fqz612mh.
    http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2fqz612mh

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Tom Hill

    Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas, Lawrence, United States
    For correspondence
    tom.hill@ku.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-4661-6391

  2. Robert L Unckless

    Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas, Lawrence, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-8586-7137

Funding

KU CMADP (P20 GM103638)

  • Tom Hill
  • Robert L Unckless

K-INBRE (P20 GM103418)

  • Tom Hill

National Institutes of Health (R00 GM114714)

  • Robert L Unckless

National Institutes of Health (R01 AI139154)

  • Robert L Unckless

National Science Foundation (DEB-1737824)

  • Tom Hill
  • Robert L Unckless

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2020, Hill & Unckless

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 1,571
    views
  • 182
    downloads
  • 11
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Tom Hill
  2. Robert L Unckless
(2020)
Recurrent evolution of high virulence in isolated populations of a DNA virus
eLife 9:e58931.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.58931

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.58931

Categories and tags

Further reading

    1. Evolutionary Biology

    The population genetics of convergent adaptation in maize and teosinte is not locally restricted

    Silas Tittes, Anne Lorant ... Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra
    Research Article

    What is the genetic architecture of local adaptation and what is the geographic scale over which it operates? We investigated patterns of local and convergent adaptation in five sympatric population pairs of traditionally cultivated maize and its wild relative teosinte (Zea mays subsp. parviglumis). We found that signatures of local adaptation based on the inference of adaptive fixations and selective sweeps are frequently exclusive to individual populations, more so in teosinte compared to maize. However, for both maize and teosinte, selective sweeps are also frequently shared by several populations, and often between subspecies. We were further able to infer that selective sweeps were shared among populations most often via migration, though sharing via standing variation was also common. Our analyses suggest that teosinte has been a continued source of beneficial alleles for maize, even after domestication, and that maize populations have facilitated adaptation in teosinte by moving beneficial alleles across the landscape. Taken together, our results suggest local adaptation in maize and teosinte has an intermediate geographic scale, one that is larger than individual populations but smaller than the species range.

    1. Evolutionary Biology
    2. Neuroscience

    Vision: The inner workings of a miniature eye

    Gregor Belušič
    Insight

    The first complete 3D reconstruction of the compound eye of a minute wasp species sheds light on the nuts and bolts of size reduction.

    1. Developmental Biology
    2. Evolutionary Biology

    Single-cell sequencing provides clues about the developmental genetic basis of evolutionary adaptations in syngnathid fishes

    Hope M Healey, Hayden B Penn ... William A Cresko
    Research Article

    Seahorses, pipefishes, and seadragons are fishes from the family Syngnathidae that have evolved extraordinary traits including male pregnancy, elongated snouts, loss of teeth, and dermal bony armor. The developmental genetic and cellular changes that led to the evolution of these traits are largely unknown. Recent syngnathid genome assemblies revealed suggestive gene content differences and provided the opportunity for detailed genetic analyses. We created a single-cell RNA sequencing atlas of Gulf pipefish embryos to understand the developmental basis of four traits: derived head shape, toothlessness, dermal armor, and male pregnancy. We completed marker gene analyses, built genetic networks, and examined the spatial expression of select genes. We identified osteochondrogenic mesenchymal cells in the elongating face that express regulatory genes bmp4, sfrp1a, and prdm16. We found no evidence for tooth primordia cells, and we observed re-deployment of osteoblast genetic networks in developing dermal armor. Finally, we found that epidermal cells expressed nutrient processing and environmental sensing genes, potentially relevant for the brooding environment. The examined pipefish evolutionary innovations are composed of recognizable cell types, suggesting that derived features originate from changes within existing gene networks. Future work addressing syngnathid gene networks across multiple stages and species is essential for understanding how the novelties of these fish evolved.