mSphere最新文献

{"title":"Distribution of early-branching Cyanobacteriia and the potential habitats that gave rise to the earliest oxygenic phototrophs.","authors":"Christen Grettenberger, David A Gold, C Titus Brown","doi":"10.1128/msphere.01013-24","DOIUrl":"10.1128/msphere.01013-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis in the Cyanobacteria was one of the most transformative events in Earth history, eventually leading to the oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere. However, it is difficult to understand how the earliest Cyanobacteria functioned or evolved on early Earth in part because we do not understand their ecology, including the environments in which they lived. Here, we use a cutting-edge bioinformatics tool to survey nearly 500,000 metagenomes for relatives of the taxa that likely bookended the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis to identify the modern environments in which these organisms live. Ancestral state reconstruction suggests that the common ancestors of these organisms lived in terrestrial (soil and/or freshwater) environments. This restricted distribution may have increased the lag between the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis and the oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere.IMPORTANCECyanobacteria generate oxygen as part of their metabolism and are responsible for the rise of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere over two billion years ago. However, we do not know how long this process may have taken. To help constrain how long this process would have taken, it is necessary to understand where the earliest Cyanobacteria may have lived. Here, we use a cutting-edge bioinformatics tool called branch water to examine the environments where modern Cyanobacteria and their relatives live to constrain those inhabited by the earliest Cyanobacteria. We find that these species likely lived in non-marine environments. This indicates that the rise of oxygen may have taken longer than previously believed.</p>","PeriodicalId":19052,"journal":{"name":"mSphere","volume":" ","pages":"e0101324"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143066870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Estimated size of the total genome and protein space of viruses.","authors":"Congyu Lu, Yifan Wu, Zheng Zhang, Longfei Mao, Xingyi Ge, Aiping Wu, Fengzhu Sun, Yongqiang Jiang, Yousong Peng","doi":"10.1128/msphere.00683-24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1128/msphere.00683-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Recent metagenomic studies have identified a vast number of viruses. However, the systematic assessment of the true genetic diversity of the whole virus community on our planet remains to be investigated. Here, we explored the genome and protein space of viruses by simulating the process of virus discovery in viral metagenomic studies. Among multiple functions, the power function was found to best fit the increasing trends of virus diversity and was, therefore, used to predict the genetic space of viruses. The estimate suggests that there are at least 8.23e+08 viral operational taxonomic units and 1.62e+09 viral protein clusters on Earth when assuming the saturation of the virus genetic space, taking into account the balance of costs and the identification of novel viruses. It is noteworthy that less than 3% of the viral genetic diversity has been uncovered thus far, emphasizing the vastness of the unexplored viral landscape. To saturate the genetic space, a total of 3.08e+08 samples would be required. Analysis of viral genetic diversity by ecosystem yielded estimates consistent with those mentioned above. Furthermore, the estimate of the virus genetic space remained robust when accounting for the redundancy of sampling, sampling time, sequencing platform, and parameters used for protein clustering. This study provides a guide for future sequencing efforts in virus discovery and contributes to a better understanding of viral diversity in nature.IMPORTANCEViruses are the most abundant and diverse biological entities on Earth. In recent years, a large number of viruses have been discovered based on sequencing technology. However, it is not clear how many kinds of viruses exist on Earth. This study estimates that there are at least 823 million types of viruses and 1.62 billion types of viral proteins. Remarkably, less than 3% of this large diversity has been uncovered to date. These findings highlight the enormous potential for discovering new viruses and reveal a significant gap in our current understanding of the viral world. This study calls for increased attention and resources to be directed toward viral discovery and metagenomics and provides a guide for future sequencing efforts, enhancing our knowledge of viral diversity in nature for ecology, biology, and public health.</p>","PeriodicalId":19052,"journal":{"name":"mSphere","volume":" ","pages":"e0068324"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143492975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"<i>Clostridioides difficile</i> colonization is not mediated by bile salts and utilizes Stickland fermentation of proline in an <i>in vitro</i> model.","authors":"Xiaoyun Huang, April E Johnson, Joshua N Brehm, Thi Van Thanh Do, Thomas A Auchtung, Hugh C McCullough, Armando I Lerma, Sigmund J Haidacher, Kathleen M Hoch, Thomas D Horvath, Joseph A Sorg, Anthony M Haag, Jennifer M Auchtung","doi":"10.1128/msphere.01049-24","DOIUrl":"10.1128/msphere.01049-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Treatment with antibiotics is a major risk factor for <i>Clostridioides difficile</i> infection, likely due to depletion of the gastrointestinal microbiota. Two microbiota-mediated mechanisms thought to limit <i>C. difficile</i> colonization include the conversion of conjugated primary bile salts into secondary bile salts toxic to <i>C. difficile</i> growth and competition between the microbiota and <i>C. difficile</i> for limiting nutrients. Using a continuous flow model that simulates the nutrient conditions of the distal colon, we investigated how treatment with 6 clinically used antibiotics influenced susceptibility to <i>C. difficile</i> infection in 12 different microbial communities cultivated from healthy individuals. Antibiotic treatment reduced microbial richness; disruption varied by antibiotic class and microbiota composition, but did not correlate with <i>C. difficile</i> susceptibility. Antibiotic treatment also disrupted microbial bile salt metabolism, increasing levels of the primary bile salt, cholate. However, changes in bile salt did not correlate with increased <i>C. difficile</i> susceptibility. Furthermore, bile salts were not required to inhibit <i>C. difficile</i> colonization. We tested whether amino acid fermentation contributed to the persistence of <i>C. difficile</i> in antibiotic-treated communities. <i>C. difficile</i> mutants unable to use proline as an electron acceptor in Stickland fermentation due to disruption of proline reductase (<i>prdB</i>-) had significantly lower levels of colonization than wild-type strains in four of six antibiotic-treated communities tested. The inability to ferment glycine or leucine as electron acceptors, however, was not sufficient to limit colonization in any communities. The data provide further support for the importance of bile salt-independent mechanisms in regulating the colonization of <i>C. difficile</i>.IMPORTANCE<i>Clostridioides difficile</i> is one of the leading causes of hospital-acquired infections and antibiotic-associated diarrhea. Several potential mechanisms through which the microbiota can limit <i>C. difficile</i> infection have been identified and are potential targets for new therapeutics. However, it is unclear which mechanisms of <i>C. difficile</i> inhibition represent the best targets for the development of new therapeutics. These studies demonstrate that in a complex <i>in vitro</i> model of <i>C. difficile</i> infection, colonization resistance is independent of microbial bile salt metabolism. Instead, the ability of <i>C. difficile</i> to colonize is dependent upon its ability to metabolize proline, although proline-dependent colonization is context dependent and is not observed in all disrupted communities. Altogether, these studies support the need for further work to understand how bile-independent mechanisms regulate <i>C. difficile</i> colonization.</p>","PeriodicalId":19052,"journal":{"name":"mSphere","volume":" ","pages":"e0104924"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143008837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"mSphere of Influence: High-throughput screens to rapidly assign function to microbial genes.","authors":"Lori B Huberman","doi":"10.1128/msphere.00800-24","DOIUrl":"10.1128/msphere.00800-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Lori Huberman works in the field of fungal genetics, with an emphasis on investigating the genetic mechanisms fungi use to sense and respond to the nutrients and toxins in their environment. In this mSphere of Influence article, she reflects on how \"Rapid quantification of mutant fitness in diverse bacteria by sequencing randomly bar-coded transposons\" by K. M. Wetmore, M. N. Price, R. J. Waters, J. S. Lamson, et al. (mBio 6:e00306-15, 2015, https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.00306-15) made an impact on her by establishing technologies that open realistic possibilities for developing high-throughput screening methods to correlate phenotype to genotype in diverse fungal species.</p>","PeriodicalId":19052,"journal":{"name":"mSphere","volume":" ","pages":"e0080024"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143059862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Retraction for Hiramatsu et al., \"Melanin Produced by <i>Bordetella parapertussis</i> Confers a Survival Advantage to the Bacterium during Host Infection\".","authors":"Yukihiro Hiramatsu, Takashi Nishida, Dendi Krisna Nugraha, Fuminori Sugihara, Yasuhiko Horiguchi","doi":"10.1128/msphere.01072-24","DOIUrl":"10.1128/msphere.01072-24","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19052,"journal":{"name":"mSphere","volume":" ","pages":"e0107224"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143190058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"c-di-GMP phosphodiesterase ProE interacts with quorum sensing protein PqsE to promote pyocyanin production in <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>.","authors":"Qishun Feng, Xin Dai, Qiulan Wu, Lianhui Zhang, Liang Yang, Yang Fu","doi":"10.1128/msphere.01026-24","DOIUrl":"10.1128/msphere.01026-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The universal bacterial second messenger bis-(3'-5')-cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP) plays critical roles in regulating a variety of bacterial functions such as biofilm formation and virulence. The metabolism of c-di-GMP is inversely controlled by diguanylate cyclases (DGCs) and phosphodiesterases (PDEs). Recently, increasing studies suggested that the protein-protein interactions between DGCs/PDEs and their partners appear to be a common way to achieve specific regulation. In this work, we showed that the PDE ProE can interact with PQS quorum sensing protein PqsE to regulate pyocyanin production in <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>. Our bacterial two-hybrid assay demonstrated that ProE directly interacts with PqsE, and isothermal titration calorimetry and surface plasmon resonance assay further confirmed that the binding affinity of ProE with PqsE is at micromolar level. Both ProE and PqsE negatively regulate intracellular c-di-GMP levels. Furthermore, our transcriptomic study showed that co-expression of ProE and PqsE significantly changes the gene expression profiles in <i>P. aeruginosa</i>, especially with increased expression of pyocyanin genes, and the qPCR and phenotypic results confirmed the transcriptome data. Taken together, our study suggested that the interaction between ProE and PqsE plays a critical role in regulation of pyocyanin production and highlights the importance of protein-protein interaction mediated c-di-GMP signaling in <i>P. aeruginosa</i>.IMPORTANCEc-di-GMP is pivotal in orchestrating various bacterial functions. In P<i>seudomonas aeruginosa</i>, the nuanced balance of intracellular c-di-GMP is maintained by approximately 41 diguanylate cyclases (DGCs) and phosphodiesterases (PDEs). Emerging studies indicate that the c-di-GMP metabolic DGCs and PDEs may be involved in the signal transduction process by directly binding to the target protein, thus influencing downstream function. Despite their known importance, the precise functions of these proteins, especially their interacting partners, remain unclear. In this study, we identified that PQS quorum sensing system protein PqsE is a binding partner of c-di-GMP phosphodiesterase ProE; further analysis suggested that the ProE specifically interacts with PqsE to promote pyocyanin production. Our study extended the regulatory mechanism of the c-di-GMP signal transduction and quorum sensing in governing bacterial physiology.</p>","PeriodicalId":19052,"journal":{"name":"mSphere","volume":" ","pages":"e0102624"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143053018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Virus-like particle-based vaccines targeting the <i>Anopheles</i> mosquito salivary protein TRIO.","authors":"Alexandra Francian, Yevel Flores-Garcia, John R Powell, Nikolai Petrovsky, Fidel Zavala, Bryce Chackerian","doi":"10.1128/msphere.00798-24","DOIUrl":"10.1128/msphere.00798-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Malaria is a highly lethal infectious disease caused by <i>Plasmodium</i> parasites. These parasites are transmitted to vertebrate hosts when mosquitoes of the <i>Anopheles</i> genus probe for a blood meal. Sporozoites, the infectious stage of <i>Plasmodium</i>, transit to the liver within hours of injection into the dermis. Vaccine efforts are hindered by the complexity of the parasite's lifecycle and the speed at which the infection is established in the liver. In an effort to enhance immunity against <i>Plasmodium</i>, we produced a virus-like particle (VLP)-based vaccine displaying an epitope of TRIO, an <i>Anopheles</i> salivary protein that has been shown to enhance mobility and dispersal of sporozoites in the dermis. Previous work demonstrated that passive immunization with TRIO offered protection from liver infection and acted synergistically with a <i>Plasmodium</i>-targeted vaccine. Immunization of mice with TRIO VLPs resulted in high-titer and long-lasting antibody responses that did not significantly drop for over 18 months post-immunization. TRIO VLPs were similarly immunogenic when combined with an anti-malaria vaccine targeting the L9 epitope of the <i>Plasmodium falciparum</i> circumsporozoite protein. However, when used in a malaria challenge mouse model, TRIO VLPs only provided modest protection from infection and did not boost the protection provided by L9 VLPs.IMPORTANCEProteins present in the salivary glands of mosquitos have been shown to enhance the transmission efficiency of mosquito-borne pathogens, suggesting that interventions targeting the activity of these proteins could reduce transmission. Here, we looked at the efficacy of a vaccine targeting TRIO, an <i>Anopheles</i> mosquito salivary protein that has been reported to enhance <i>Plasmodium falciparum</i> malaria infection. We show that this vaccine can elicit strong anti-TRIO antibody responses, but these antibodies only result in a modest decrease in infection.</p>","PeriodicalId":19052,"journal":{"name":"mSphere","volume":" ","pages":"e0079824"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143059870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Novel antibodies detect nucleocytoplasmic O-fucose in protist pathogens, cellular slime molds, and plants.","authors":"Megna Tiwari, Elisabet Gas-Pascual, Manish Goyal, Marla Popov, Kenjiroo Matsumoto, Marianne Grafe, Ralph Gräf, Robert S Haltiwanger, Neil Olszewski, Ron Orlando, John C Samuelson, Christopher M West","doi":"10.1128/msphere.00945-24","DOIUrl":"10.1128/msphere.00945-24","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cellular adaptations to change often involve post-translational modifications of nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins. An example found in protists and plants is the modification of serine and threonine residues of dozens to hundreds of nucleocytoplasmic proteins with a single fucose (O-fucose). A nucleocytoplasmic O-fucosyltransferase occurs in the pathogen &lt;i&gt;Toxoplasma gondii&lt;/i&gt;, the social amoeba &lt;i&gt;Dictyostelium&lt;/i&gt;, and higher plants, where it is called Spy because mutants have a spindly appearance. O-fucosylation, which is required for optimal proliferation of &lt;i&gt;Toxoplasma&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Dictyostelium&lt;/i&gt;, is paralogous to the O-GlcNAcylation of nucleocytoplasmic proteins of plants and animals that are involved in stress and nutritional responses. O-fucose was first discovered in &lt;i&gt;Toxoplasma&lt;/i&gt; using &lt;i&gt;Aleuria aurantia&lt;/i&gt; lectin, but its broad specificity for terminal fucose residues on N- and O-linked glycans in the secretory pathway limits its use. Here we present affinity-purified rabbit antisera that are selective for the detection and enrichment of proteins bearing fucose-O-Ser or fucose-O-Thr. These antibodies detect numerous nucleocytoplasmic proteins in &lt;i&gt;Toxoplasma, Dictyostelium&lt;/i&gt;, and &lt;i&gt;Arabidopsis&lt;/i&gt;, as well as O-fucose occurring on secretory proteins of &lt;i&gt;Dictyostelium&lt;/i&gt; and mammalian cells except when blocked by further glycosylation. The antibodies label &lt;i&gt;Toxoplasma&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;Acanthamoeba&lt;/i&gt;, and &lt;i&gt;Dictyostelium&lt;/i&gt; in a pattern reminiscent of O-GlcNAc in animal cells including nuclear pores. The O-fucome of &lt;i&gt;Dictyostelium&lt;/i&gt; is partially conserved with that of &lt;i&gt;Toxoplasma&lt;/i&gt; and is highly induced during starvation-induced development. These antisera demonstrate the unique antigenicity of O-fucose, document the conservation of the O-fucome among unrelated protists, and enable the study of the O-fucomes of other organisms possessing O-fucosyltransferase-like genes.IMPORTANCEO-fucose (O-Fuc), a form of mono-glycosylation on serine and threonine residues of nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins of some parasites, other unicellular eukaryotes, and plants, is understudied because it is difficult to detect owing to its neutral charge and lability during mass spectrometry. Yet, the O-fucosyltransferase enzyme (OFT) is required for optimal growth of the agent for toxoplasmosis, &lt;i&gt;Toxoplasma gondii&lt;/i&gt;, and an unrelated protist, the social amoeba &lt;i&gt;Dictyostelium discoideum&lt;/i&gt;. Furthermore, O-fucosylation is closely related to the analogous process of O-GlcNAcylation of thousands of proteins of animal cells, where it plays a central role in stress and nutritional responses. O-Fuc is currently best detected using &lt;i&gt;Aleuria aurantia&lt;/i&gt; lectin (AAL), but in most organisms, AAL also recognizes a multitude of proteins in the secretory pathway that are modified with fucose in different ways. By establishing the potential to induce highly specific rabbit antisera that discriminate O-Fuc from all other forms of protein f","PeriodicalId":19052,"journal":{"name":"mSphere","volume":" ","pages":"e0094524"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143256003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A more rapid method for transformation of <i>Helicobacter pylori</i>.","authors":"Caroline D Skene, Richard L Ferrero","doi":"10.1128/msphere.00005-25","DOIUrl":"10.1128/msphere.00005-25","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><i>Helicobacter pylori</i> is a major causative agent in several upper gastroduodenal tract diseases, including gastric cancer. The development of methods to genetically manipulate <i>H. pylori</i> by natural transformation has allowed a greater understanding of its biology and role in these diseases. Nevertheless, the transformation methods used for <i>H. pylori</i> are time-consuming, requiring growth of these fastidious and slow-growing bacteria from -80°C stocks. The aim of the study was to develop a more rapid and convenient method for generating <i>H. pylori</i> mutants. We describe here a method in which competent <i>H. pylori</i> bacteria can be stored at -80°C and used in transformations on the day of resuscitation, similar to methods routinely used for <i>Escherichia coli</i>. This means that transformation can be performed at will and that transformants can be obtained within days, rather than weeks. Furthermore, we show that bacteria remain competent for at least six months storage at -80°C and that the method is applicable to strains with varying levels of natural competence. Transformation efficiencies of the bacteria varied between 10¹ and 10⁶ transformants/total colony-forming units/µg donor DNA, depending on the strain. We suggest that this improved method will facilitate studies on <i>H. pylori</i> and, moreover, may be applicable to other naturally transformable pathogens with fastidious growth requirements and requiring ultra-low temperature refrigeration for long-term preservation.IMPORTANCEGenetic manipulation is an important tool in the study of pathogenic bacteria and their interactions with the host. Many pathogenic bacteria are naturally transformable; however, transformation experiments can be impeded by the slow-growing and fastidious nature of some species. One such bacterium is <i>Helicobacter pylori</i>, which requires resuscitation from -80°C and multiple subcultures prior to transformation. The method described in the current study uses a simple modification of a conventional method of natural transformation. Using this method, competent <i>H. pylori</i> bacteria can be stored for long periods (at least six months) and resuscitated as needed for use in experiments. The method circumvents the need for multiple and lengthy subcultures prior to transformation, nor does it involve costly materials, complicated procedures, or sophisticated equipment. Thus, we describe a simple, inexpensive, and time-efficient method that may have broader applications for use with other fastidious bacteria.</p>","PeriodicalId":19052,"journal":{"name":"mSphere","volume":" ","pages":"e0000525"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143066866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in lions, tigers, and hyenas at Denver Zoo.","authors":"Emily N Gallichotte, Laura Bashor, Katelyn Erbeck, Lara Croft, Katelyn Stache, Jessica Long, Sue VandeWoude, James C Johnson, Kristy L Pabilonia, Gregory D Ebel","doi":"10.1128/msphere.00989-24","DOIUrl":"10.1128/msphere.00989-24","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In late 2019, SARS-CoV-2 spilled over from an animal host into humans, where it efficiently spread, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. Through both natural and experimental infections, we learned that many animal species are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2. Importantly, animals in close proximity to humans, including companion, farmed, and those at zoos and aquariums, became infected, and many studies demonstrated transmission to/from humans in these settings. In this study, we first review the literature of SARS-CoV-2 infections in tigers and lions and compare species, sex, age, virus and antibody detection assay, and types, frequency, and length of clinical signs, demonstrating broad heterogeneity among infections. We then describe a SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in lions, tigers, and hyenas at Denver Zoo in late 2021. Animals were tested for viral RNA (vRNA) for 4 months. Lions had significantly more vRNA in nasal swabs than both tigers and hyenas, and many individual lions experienced viral recrudescence after weeks of undetectable vRNA. Infectious virus was correlated with high levels of vRNA and was more likely to be detected earlier during infection. Four months post-infection, all tested animals generated robust neutralizing antibody titers. Animals were infected with Delta lineage AY.20 identical to a variant circulating at less than 1% in Colorado humans at that time, suggesting a single spillover event from an infected human spread within and between species housed at the zoo. Better understanding of epidemiology and susceptibility of SARS-CoV-2 infections in animals is critical to limit the current and future spread and protect animal and human health.IMPORTANCESurveillance and experimental testing have shown many animal species, including companion, wildlife, and conservatory, are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, big cats at zoological institutions were among the first documented cases of naturally infected animals; however, challenges in the ability to collect longitudinal samples in zoo animals have limited our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 kinetics and clearance in these settings. We measured SARS-CoV-2 infections over 4 months in lions, tigers, and hyenas at Denver Zoo and detected viral RNA, infectious virus, neutralizing antibodies, and recrudescence after initial clearance. We found lions had longer and higher levels of virus compared to the other species. All animals were infected by a rare viral lineage circulating in the human population, suggesting a single spillover followed by interspecies transmission. These data are important in better understanding natural SARS-CoV-2 spillover, spread, and infection kinetics within multiple species of zoo animals.</p>","PeriodicalId":19052,"journal":{"name":"mSphere","volume":" ","pages":"e0098924"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143256007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}