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A divergent hepatitis D-like agent in birds

View ORCID ProfileMichelle Wille, Hans J. Netter, Margaret Littlejohn, Lilly Yuen, Mang Shi, John-Sebastian Eden, Marcel Klaassen, View ORCID ProfileEdward C. Holmes, Aeron C. Hurt
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/423707
Michelle Wille
1WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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  • For correspondence: michelle.wille@influenzacentre.org
Hans J. Netter
2Molecular Research and Development, Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Royal Melbourne Hospital at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Margaret Littlejohn
2Molecular Research and Development, Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Royal Melbourne Hospital at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Lilly Yuen
2Molecular Research and Development, Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Royal Melbourne Hospital at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Mang Shi
3Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, Charles Perkins Centre, School of Life and Environmental Sciences and Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
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John-Sebastian Eden
3Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, Charles Perkins Centre, School of Life and Environmental Sciences and Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
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Marcel Klaassen
4Centre for Integrative Ecology, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
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Edward C. Holmes
3Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, Charles Perkins Centre, School of Life and Environmental Sciences and Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
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Aeron C. Hurt
1WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Abstract

Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is currently only found in humans, and is a satellite virus that depends on hepatitis B virus (HBV) envelope proteins for assembly, release and entry. Using meta-transcriptomics, we identified the genome of a novel HDV-like agent in ducks. Sequence analysis revealed secondary structures that were shared with HDV, including self-complementarity and ribozyme features. The predicted viral protein shares 32% amino acid similarity to the small delta antigen of HDV and comprises a divergent phylogenetic lineage. The discovery of an avian HDV-like agent has important implications for the understanding of the origins of HDV and subviral agents.

Importance Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is currently only found in humans, and coinfections of HDV and Hepatitis B virus (HBV) in humans result in severe liver disease. There are a number of hypotheses for the origin of HDV, although a key component of all is that HDV only exists in humans. Here, we describe a novel deltavirus-like agent identified in wild birds. Although this agent is genetically divergent, it exhibits important similarities to HDV, such as the presence of ribosymes and self-complementarity. The discovery of an avian HDV-like agent challenges our understanding of both the origin and the co-evolutionary relationships of subviral agents with helper viruses.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted September 23, 2018.
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A divergent hepatitis D-like agent in birds
Michelle Wille, Hans J. Netter, Margaret Littlejohn, Lilly Yuen, Mang Shi, John-Sebastian Eden, Marcel Klaassen, Edward C. Holmes, Aeron C. Hurt
bioRxiv 423707; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/423707
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A divergent hepatitis D-like agent in birds
Michelle Wille, Hans J. Netter, Margaret Littlejohn, Lilly Yuen, Mang Shi, John-Sebastian Eden, Marcel Klaassen, Edward C. Holmes, Aeron C. Hurt
bioRxiv 423707; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/423707

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