Comprehensive evolutionary analysis of complete Epstein Barr virus genomes from Argentina and other geographies

BLAZQUEZ, C.; JOSÉ, BERENSTEIN ARIEL; TORRES, CAROLINA; IZQUIERDO, A.; LEZAMA, C.; MOSCATELLI, G.; DE MATTEO E; ALEJANDRO, LORENZETTI MARIO; MARIA VICTORIA PRECIADO

Viruses- Basel

MDPI

Año: 2021

1999-4915

: Epstein Barr virus sequence variability has been deeply studied throughout the past years in isolates from various geographic regions and consequent variation at both genetic and genomic levels has been described. However, isolates from South America were underrepresented in these studies. Here, we sequenced 15 complete EBV genomes that we analyzed together with publicly available raw NGS data for 199 EBV isolates from other parts of the globe, by means of a custom-built bioinformatic pipeline. Phylogenetic relations of the genomes, geographic struc-ture and variability of the data set, evolution rates for the whole genome and each gene were assessed. The present work contributes to overcome the scarcity of EBV complete genomes from South America, and hence, achieves the most comprehensive geography-related variability study which also determines the actual contribution of each EBV gene to the geographic segre-gation of the entire genomes. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, we established for the first time the evolution rate for the entire EBV genome, on a host-virus codiver-gence-independent assumption, and assessed, on a gene-by-gene basis, their evolution rates which were related to the encoded protein function. Considering evolution of dsDNA viruses with a codivergence-independent approach, may lay the basis for future research on EBV evolu-tion. Exhaustive bioinformatic analysis performed on this new dataset allowed us to drive a novel set of conclusions regarding EBV genome evolution.