Freshwater Mussels Show Elevated Viral Richness and Intensity during a Mortality Event

Freshwater Mussels Show Elevated Viral Richness and Intensity during a Mortality Event

Freshwater mussels (Unionida) are among the world's most imperiled taxa, but the relationship between freshwater mussel mortality events and infectious disease is largely unstudied. We surveyed viromes of a widespread and abundant species (mucket, ; syn: ) experiencing a mortality event of unkn...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Viruses 2022-11, Vol.14 (12), p.2603
Main Authors: Richard, Jordan C, Leis, Eric M, Dunn, Christopher D, Harris, Cleyo, Agbalog, Rose E, Campbell, Lewis J, Knowles, Susan, Waller, Diane L, Putnam, Joel G, Goldberg, Tony L
Format: Article
Language:eng
Subjects:
Animals
bivalve
Bivalvia
Comparative analysis
die-off
Etiology
Fresh Water
freshwater mussel
Genomes
Genomics
Health aspects
Humans
Infectious diseases
Laboratories
mass mortality
Michigan
Mollusks
Mortality
mucket
Mussels
Phylogenetics
Rivers
Surveys
Taxonomy
unionid
virome
Viruses
Wisconsin
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Freshwater mussels (Unionida) are among the world's most imperiled taxa, but the relationship between freshwater mussel mortality events and infectious disease is largely unstudied. We surveyed viromes of a widespread and abundant species (mucket, ; syn: ) experiencing a mortality event of unknown etiology in the Huron River, Michigan, in 2019-2020 and compared them to viromes from mucket in a healthy population in the St. Croix River, Wisconsin and a population from the Clinch River, Virginia and Tennessee, where a mortality event was affecting the congeneric pheasantshell ( ; syn: ) population. We identified 38 viruses, most of which were associated with mussels collected during the Huron River mortality event. Viral richness and cumulative viral read depths were significantly higher in moribund mussels from the Huron River than in healthy controls from each of the three populations. Our results demonstrate significant increases in the number and intensity of viral infections for freshwater mussels experiencing mortality events, whereas individuals from healthy populations have a substantially reduced virome comprising a limited number of species at low viral read depths.
ISSN:1999-4915
1999-4915