English
 
Help Privacy Policy Disclaimer
  Advanced SearchBrowse

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Released

Journal Article

Deciphering the Origin and Evolution of Hepatitis B Viruses by Means of a Family of Non-enveloped Fish Viruses

MPS-Authors
There are no MPG-Authors in the publication available
External Resource
No external resources are shared
Fulltext (restricted access)
There are currently no full texts shared for your IP range.
Fulltext (public)
There are no public fulltexts stored in PuRe
Supplementary Material (public)
There is no public supplementary material available
Citation

Lauber, C., Seitz, S., Mattei, S., Suh, A., Beck, J., Herstein, J., et al. (2017). Deciphering the Origin and Evolution of Hepatitis B Viruses by Means of a Family of Non-enveloped Fish Viruses. Cell Host & Microbe, 22(3), 387-399. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2017.07.019.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-71C4-A
Abstract
Hepatitis B viruses (HBVs), which are enveloped viruses with reverse-transcribed DNA genomes, constitute the family Hepadnaviridae. An outstanding feature of HBVs is their streamlined genome organization with extensive gene overlap. Remarkably, the similar to 1,100 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding the envelope proteins is fully nested within the ORF of the viral replicase P. Here, we report the discovery of a diversified family of fish viruses, designated nackednaviruses, which lack the envelope protein gene, but otherwise exhibit key characteristics of HBVs including genome replication via proteinprimed reverse-transcription and utilization of structurally related capsids. Phylogenetic reconstruction indicates that these two virus families separated more than 400 million years ago before the rise of tetrapods. We show that HBVs are of ancient origin, descending from non-enveloped progenitors in fishes. Their envelope protein gene emerged de novo, leading to a major transition in viral lifestyle, followed by co-evolution with their hosts over geologic eras.