Koala retrovirus viral load and disease burden in distinct northern and southern koala populations
Sarker, Nishat, Fabijan, Jessica, Owen, Helen, Seddon, Jennifer, Simmons, Greg, Speight, Natasha, Kaler, Jasmeet, Woolford, Lucy, Emes, Richard David, Hemmatzadeh, Farhid, Trott, Darren J., Meers, Joanne, and Tarlinton, Rachael Eugenie (2020) Koala retrovirus viral load and disease burden in distinct northern and southern koala populations. Scientific Reports, 10 (1). 263.
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Abstract
Koala retrovirus (KoRV) displays features of both an endogenous and exogenous virus and is linked to neoplasia and immunosuppression in koalas. This study explores the apparent differences in the nature and impact of KoRV infection between geographically and genetically separated “northern” and “southern” koala populations, by investigating the disease status, completeness of the KoRV genome and the proviral (DNA) and viral (RNA) loads of 71 northern and 97 southern koalas. All northern animals were positive for all KoRV genes (gag, pro-pol and env) in both DNA and RNA forms, whereas many southern animals were missing one or more KoRV genes. There was a significant relationship between the completeness of the KoRV genome and clinical status in this population. The proviral and viral loads of the northern population were significantly higher than those of the southern population (P < 0.0001), and many provirus-positive southern animals failed to express any detectable KoRV RNA. Across both populations there was a positive association between proviral load and neoplasia (P = 0.009). Potential reasons for the differences in the nature of KoRV infection between the two populations are discussed.
| Item ID: | 78717 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 2045-2322 |
| Copyright Information: | © Te Author(s) 2020. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Te images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Mar 2025 07:25 |
| FoR Codes: | 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3105 Genetics > 310509 Genomics @ 50% 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310308 Terrestrial ecology @ 50% |
| SEO Codes: | 18 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT > 1806 Terrestrial systems and management > 180602 Control of pests, diseases and exotic species in terrestrial environments @ 100% |
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