Aris Katzourakis

We found novel #papillomaviruses, that are prevalent, diverse, and with complete genomes, in the critically endangered Malayan and Chinese pangolins #paleovirology

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0464

Discovery of novel papillomaviruses in the critically endangered Malayan and Chinese pangolins | Biology Letters

Pangolins are scaly and toothless mammals which are distributed across Africa and Asia. Currently, the Malayan, Chinese and Philippine pangolins are designated as critically endangered species. Although few pangolin viruses have been described, their ...

Biology Letters
Jan 5, 2023 at 10:29amWeb
Show threadAris KatzourakisJan 5, 2023
The complete genome annotated from a Malayan pangolin individual, looks like this, encodes the four core papillomavirus proteins, two accessory ones and splice products:
Show threadAris KatzourakisJan 5, 2023
Phylogenetically, most pangolin L1 sequences cluster with tree shrew papillomavirus sequences.
Show threadAris KatzourakisJan 5, 2023
Tree shrews share a geographic range with the pangolin species hosting this virus, suggesting potentially that cross-species transmissions of these viruses have occurred in the past.