Evolutionary Journey of the Retroviral Restriction Gene Fv1
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Evolutionary journey of the retroviral restriction gene Fv1 George R. Younga, Melvyn W. Yapa, Johan R. Michauxb,c, Scott J. Steppand, and Jonathan P. Stoyea,e,1 aRetrovirus-Host Interactions Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, London NW1 1AT, United Kingdom; bLaboratoire de Génétique de la Conservation, Université de Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium; cUMR Animal, Santé, Territoires, Risques et Ecosystèmes (ASTRE), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), Campus International de Baillarguet, Université de Montpellier, 34398 Montpellier, France; dDepartment of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32304; and eDepartment of Medicine, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom Edited by Stephen P. Goff, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, and approved August 17, 2018 (received for review May 18, 2018) Both exogenous and endogenous retroviruses have long been this apparently recent ancestry, the pol gene of the progenitor studied in mice, and some of the earliest mouse studies focused on virus is lacking, and neither LTR has been discerned (8). the heritability of genetic factors influencing permissivity and Searches for intact representatives of the progenitor revealed no resistance to infection. The prototypic retroviral restriction factor, closely related ERVs, and Fv1 shares only 43% amino acid identity Fv1, is now understood to exhibit a degree of control across mul- with its nearest neighbor in the mouse genome, MuERV-L (ERV Mus tiple retroviral genera and is highly diverse within . To better with a leucine tRNA primer binding site) (8). This paradox may Fv1 understand the age and evolutionary history of , a comprehen- result from incomplete representation of exogenous viruses among sive survey of the Muroidea was conducted, allowing the progen- those endogenized and fixed but, equally, may suggest a longer itor integration to be dated to ∼45 million years. Intact coding and more complex evolutionary history. Indeed, Southern blot- potential is visible beyond Mus, and sequence analysis reveals strong signatures of positive selection also within field mice, Apo- ting revealed hybridizing digestion fragments within the genus demus. Fv1’s survival for such a period implies a recurring and Mastomys (12), although this was never further studied. shifting retroviral burden imparting the necessary selective pres- Here, we have sought to more accurately determine the origin sures—an influence likely also common to analogous factors. Re- of Fv1 and to use a phylogenetic approach to inform on the MICROBIOLOGY gions of Fv1 adapt cooperatively, highlighting its preference for historical selection pressures that have shaped its restriction repeated structures and suggesting that this functionally con- specificities and preserved the gene through evolutionary time. strained aspect of the retroviral capsid lattice presents a common target in the evolution of intrinsic immunity. Results Resolving the History of the Fv1 Locus. Within Mus, Fv1 (GRCm38 restriction factor | evolution | host–virus interactions | retrovirus Chr4:147,868,979–147,870,358) is located in an ∼5-kb region between Migration and invasion inhibitory protein (Miip) and hile a variety of viruses occasionally integrate as endoge- Mitofusin 2 (Mfn2) (Fig. 1). The shared direction and relative Wnous viral elements (1), the absolute requirement for an separation of this pair are common among assembled genomes integrated proviral stage is the defining feature of retroviral from humans and mice through to chickens (diverging ∼310 Mya), replication. When infection occurs within a germ cell, endoge- nous retroviruses (ERVs) may be inherited in a Mendelian Significance manner and hence, form a partial “fossil record” of historic viral burdens. Although originally unappreciated, retroviruses, as fil- We have charted the evolution of the capsid-binding retroviral terable, transmissible pathogens, have been studied since the late restriction factor Fv1 through murid evolution, extending its 1800s. The earliest breeding of inbred animals both facilitated age to ∼45 million years. Functionality can be found outside of and was necessitated by the study of ERVs and exogenous ret- the genus Mus, and shared signatures of positive selection are “ ” roviruses as the agents of heritable cancer (2). Research de- visible across species. Modeling suggests that maintenance for veloping these themes in mice led to the description of Friend these extended periods can only be parsimoniously explained virus susceptibility 1 (Fv1), a dominant locus conferring pro- by repeated selection events—waves of retroviral infection tection from otherwise lethal challenges with murine leukemia throughout murid evolution. Our results complement and ex- virus (MLV) (3, 4). Within common laboratory lines, two alleles α b n tend findings with TRIM5 and suggest that conserved fea- can be observed, Fv1 and Fv1 , that were identified in BALB/c tures of retroviral capsid lattice assemblies may be common and NIH-Swiss mice, respectively. Each allele confers resistance targets in convergent evolution of intrinsic defenses to retro- to virus of the opposing N and B tropism and may be additively viral infection. Functional constraints on capsid structure may combined (5, 6). prevent effective escape of host factors and result in cyclical The molecular cloning of Fv1 revealed its derivation from a coevolution, which is visible in the evolution of Fv1. retroviral gag gene (7, 8). While many examples of such co-options for host defense have been reported, these are most frequently Author contributions: G.R.Y., J.R.M., S.J.S., and J.P.S. designed research; G.R.Y. and products of env operating through receptor blockade (9). Fv1’s M.W.Y. performed research; J.R.M. and S.J.S. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; presumably more unique mode of restriction, indirectly de- G.R.Y. and M.W.Y. analyzed data; and G.R.Y. and J.P.S. wrote the paper. termined to be through capsid (CA) binding (10), has remained The authors declare no conflict of interest. elusive. Similarly, while its domain organization has been char- This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. acterized, the protein has not proven amenable to crystallization, Published under the PNAS license. and all studies to date have had a necessarily genetic basis. Nev- Data deposition: The sequences reported in this paper have been deposited in the Gen- ertheless, recent work has expanded the scope of restriction be- Bank database (accession nos. MH001948-69 and MH727610-4). yond the gammaretroviruses to lenti- and spumaviruses (11). 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: [email protected]. Based on instances of absence within certain Mus species and This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10. on its absence in Rattus, previous estimates have placed in- 1073/pnas.1808516115/-/DCSupplemental. tegration of Fv1’s progenitor virus at 4–7 Mya (12, 13). Despite www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1808516115 PNAS Latest Articles | 1of6 Fv1 > < Miip < Mfn2 Oryctolagus cuniculus Ictidomys tridecemlineatus Marmota marmota Fukomys damarensis Heterocephalus glaber Octodon degus Chinchilla lanigera Castor canadensis Dipodomys ordii Jaculus jaculus Spalax galili Cricetulus griseus Mesocricetus auratus Myodes glareolus Ellobius talpinus Microtus ochrogaster Peromyscus maniculatus Neotoma lepida Psammomys obesus Meriones unguiculatus Rattus norvegicus Mus musculus Fig. 1. Fv1 is found across the Muroidea. Representation of the multiple alignment of 22 species from the 5′ UTR of Miip to the 3′ UTR of Mfn2. Regions masked by RepeatMasker as deriving from repetitive elements (including Fv1) are show in red, with the remaining sequence and genic regions in black and alignment gaps represented as linking lines. The region encompassing Fv1 is shaded in blue and can be seen in genera from Mus to Spalax, where larger regions of the progenitor virus can also be identified (lighter blue shading). and they thus present a useful framework within which the pres- within the Spalacidae. No sequences identified in this screen ence or absence of Fv1 can be established. contained intact ORFs. To initially investigate the presence of Fv1 immediately be- Twenty-two assemblies contained single contigs bridging Miip and yond the genus Mus, we analyzed three sequences from the ge- Mfn2 and were used to build an alignment of the region (species for nus Apodemus: Apodemus sylvaticus from an archived genome which both genes were not assembled together were excluded, as assembly and Apodemus uralensis and Apodemus semosus unassembled regions would otherwise be indistinguishable from from targeted assemblies of the region. Fv1 was present in all genuinely absent sequence). Comparisons revealed a high degree of instances, with complete ORFs visible in A. sylvaticus and variability due largely to the activity of transposable elements (TEs) A. uralensis. Both ORFs exhibited activity directed against (Fig. 1). This variability, combined with the multiple points of erro- MLVs when assayed for restriction capacity (Table 1). neous homology presented by TEs, posed a significant challenge and The divergence of the Apodemini and Murini tribes predates necessitated the use of a repeat-aware alignment program, FSA (15), that of the Murini and Praomyini (14), represented by Mastomys, which can be used in conjunction with RepeatMasker annotations. and these data presented