Screening great ape museum specimens for DNA viruses
Hämmerle MPapers in this archive, Guellil MPapers in this archive, Trgovec-Greif LPapers in this archive, Cheronet OPapers in this archive, Sawyer SPapers in this archive, Ruiz-Gartzia IPapers in this archive, Lizano EPapers in this archive, Rymbekova APapers in this archive, Gelabert PPapers in this archive, Bernardi PPapers in this archive, Han SPapers in this archive, Rattei TPapers in this archive, Schuenemann VJPapers in this archive, Marques-Bonet TPapers in this archive, Guschanski KPapers in this archive, Calvignac-Spencer SPapers in this archive, Pinhasi RPapers in this archive, Kuhlwilm MPapers in this archive
Abstract
Natural history museum collections harbour a record of wild species from the past centuries, providing a unique opportunity to study animals as well as their infectious agents. Thousands of great ape specimens are kept in these collections, and could become an important resource for studying the evolution of DNA viruses. Their genetic material is likely to be preserved in dry museum specimens, as reported previously for monkeypox virus genomes from historical orangutan specimens. Here, we screened 209 great ape museum specimens for 99 different DNA viruses, using hybridization capture coupled with short-read high-throughput sequencing. We determined the presence of multiple viruses within this dataset from historical specimens and obtained several near-complete viral genomes. In particular, we report high-coverage (> 18-fold) hepatitis B virus genomes from one gorilla and two chimpanzee individuals, which are phylogenetically placed within clades infecting the respective host species. Keywords: Museomics, Great apes, Target-enrichment capture, Viruses, Hepatitis B virus Subject terms: Viral genetics, Evolutionary genetics
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