Identification of novel gammaherpesviruses in North American carnivores
Bibliographic record
Abstract
We investigated the diversity of gammaherpesviruses (GHVs) present in North American carnivorans using GHV-targeted consensus PCR to amplify viral glycoprotein B (gB) and DNA polymerase (Dpol) genes. For each unique GHV identified, we sequenced a 3.5 kb region spanning gB to Dpol. Screening of spleen DNA from 263 individual animals comprising 17 carnivoran species from 7 families resulted in the identification of 8 unique GHVs, each associated with a single host species. We identified five viruses from mustelid species (ermine, marten, mink, fisher, and river otter) and the first GHV from a mephitid (skunk) host. These six GHVs clustered phylogenetically within the Percavirus genus, forming a distinct carnivoran percavirus clade. Within this clade, viruses clustered by host family, suggesting host family-specific viral adaptation. Co-phylogenetic analysis of virus and host indicated that while cross-species transmission likely shaped the evolution of carnivoran percaviruses, most virus transfers between species likely occurred within host families. We further identified unique GHVs in black bears and raccoons that clustered together phylogenetically, but did not cluster into established GHV genera. These results support the existence of a unique and divergent group of GHVs in bear and raccoon hosts. In addition, we detected black bear GHV in brain tissue from bears with and without encephalitis, suggesting that a potential relationship between bear GHV and neurologic disease will require additional study. In summary, we identified 8 unique carnivore GHVs, each associated with a distinct host species. Identification of these potential pathogens will aid in future investigation of wildlife diseases. • Screened 17 North American carnivoran species for gammaherpesviruses (GHVs) • Identified 8 unique GHVs, each associated with a distinct host species • Discovered the first GHV from a mephitid (skunk) host • GHVs from bears and raccoons form a highly divergent phylogenetic clade • Mustelid and mephitid GHVs cluster with other carnivoran GHVs in genus Percavirus
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".