The Isolated in Utero Environment Is Conducive to the Emergence of RNA and DNA Virus Variants
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Uladzimir Karniychuk; Henry Munyanduki; Ivan Trus; Nathalie G. Bérubé; Daniel Udenze
- Source
- Viruses, Vol 13, Iss 1827, p 1827 (2021)
Viruses
Volume 13
Issue 9
- Subject
- Circovirus
placenta
Swine
intra-host evolution
viruses
Microbiology
Genome
Article
Virus
Zika virus
Genetic Heterogeneity
viral evolution
Virology
Chlorocebus aethiops
Animals
Vero Cells
biology
Uterus
Genetic Variation
High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
porcine circovirus
RNA
DNA virus
RNA virus
Viral Load
biology.organism_classification
QR1-502
fetus
Porcine circovirus
Infectious Diseases
Cellular Microenvironment
Viral evolution
Female
pregnancy
Directed Molecular Evolution
- Language
- ISSN
- 1999-4915
The host’s immune status may affect virus evolution. Little is known about how developing fetal and placental immune milieus affect virus heterogeneity. This knowledge will help us better understand intra-host virus evolution and how new virus variants emerge. The goal of our study was to find out whether the isolated in utero environment—an environment with specialized placental immunity and developing fetal immunity—supports the emergence of RNA and DNA virus variants. We used well-established porcine models for isolated Zika virus (RNA virus) and porcine circovirus 2 (DNA virus) fetal infections. We found that the isolated in utero environment was conducive to the emergence of RNA and DNA virus variants. Next-generation sequencing of nearly whole virus genomes and validated bioinformatics pipelines identified both unique and convergent single nucleotide variations in virus genomes isolated from different fetuses. Zika virus and PCV2 in utero evolution also resulted in single nucleotide variations previously reported in the human and porcine field samples. These findings should encourage further studies on virus evolution in placenta and fetuses, to better understand how virus variants emerge and how in utero viral evolution affects congenital virus transmission and pathogenicity.