Equine Parvovirus-Hepatitis Population Dynamics in a Single Horse over 16 Years

TL;DR

This paper studies how a new virus, equine parvovirus-hepatitis, evolved in a single horse over 16 years through genetic changes.

Contribution

The study provides the first detailed timeline of capsid gene evolution in a single animal infected with equine parvovirus-hepatitis.

Findings

EqPV-H infection in a horse led to a sequence variant bottleneck followed by complex viral population dynamics.

High-throughput sequencing revealed patterns of emergence, dominance, and replacement of viral variants over 16 years.

The hypervariable capsid gene region enabled tracking of viral evolution in the host.

Abstract

Many viruses mutate rapidly to adapt to host defenses, and for some of these viruses, the result is long-term infection in individual hosts. The work described here examines the infection and long-term maintenance of a newly identified virus, equine parvovirus-hepatitis (EqPV-H), in an individual horse. This description is possible because of a hypervariable region in the capsid gene; sequence variants were tracked by high-throughput sequencing of serum samples taken over a 16-year period. The data support the hypothesis that EqPV-H infection resulted in a sequence variant bottleneck. The continuing infection evolved into a complex viral population showing a pattern of emergence, dominance, and recession with replacement. This is the first temporal description of the capsid gene evolution of EqPV-H in a single animal.

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