BRC-BIO: Evolutionary Genomics of Atadenoviruses

Improving our knowledge of viral evolution is critical to predicting which viruses pose a threat to human and animal health. Viruses that are capable of infecting diverse host species are of particular interest because they may have the greatest potential to move among a broad array of species. The goal of this project is to gain new insights into the evolution of Atadenoviruses – a group of viruses known to infect reptiles, mammals, and birds. This work will be accomplished by using and developing new genomic sequencing techniques and by performing computational evolutionary genomics analyses. The potential impact of this research will be two-fold. Individual Rutgers–Camden students will benefit from both direct access to advanced genomics research and the development of a new hands-on Evolution course that will expose undergraduate students to modern evolutionary genomics research. The proposed work will also serve to advance our understanding of Atadenovirus evolution and the relationship between ecological community and natural selection on viruses. The results of this work will tremendously increase the genomic data available for this group of viruses, enabling further basic and applied research objectives. Robust, genome-scale phylogenies from well-sampled viral clades are necessary to make inferences about the rate of host switching. While Adenoviruses are generally believed to co-evolve with their hosts, one genus within this group – the Atadenoviruses - buck this trend and infect a disparate collection of vertebrate hosts. This project includes three aims, to 1) evaluate the true breadth of Atadenovirus hosts, 2) infer the phylogeny of this genus and the rates of host switching within it, and 3) extend these analyses to detect molecular signatures of natural selection and test for accelerated adaptive molecular evolution in Anolis lizards, a group that may be particularly prone to Atadenoviruses host switching. To evaluate the breadth of hosts infected by Atadenoviruses, samples from across the squamate tree of life will be collected, tested for presence of Atadenoviruses, and used to generate whole genome sequences from hundreds of samples. To infer the phylogeny of Atadenoviruses, genome sequences will be aligned, and relationships inferred using species-tree phylogenetic analyses. Phylogenetic comparative methods will then be used to test predictions about the rate of host switching in Atadenoviruses. To characterize the evolutionary genomics of Atadenoviruses and their hosts, the phylogenetic trees and alignments described above will be used to perform independent tests of natural selection in Atadenoviruses and their reptile hosts. These analyses will be used to test the prediction that the high density and species richness of anoles has led to accelerated viral and host receptor evolution. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.