Molecular analysis of Gyrovirus galga1 variants identified from the sera of dogs and cats in China

Abstract

Gyrovirus galga1 (GyVg1), a member of the Anelloviridae family and Gyrovirus genus, has been detected in chicken and human tissue samples. In this study, the DNA of GyVg1-related gyroviruses in the sera of six dogs and three cats from Central and Eastern China was identified using PCR. Alignment analysis between the nine obtained and reference GyVg1 strains revealed that the genome identity ranged from 99.20% (DOG03 and DOG04 strains) to 96.17% (DOG01 and DOG06 strains). Six recombination events were predicted in multiple strains, including DOG01, DOG05, DOG06, CAT01, CAT02, and CAT03. The predicted major and minor parents of DOG05 came from Brazil. The DOG06 strain is potentially recombined from strains originating from humans and cats, whereas DOG01 is potentially recombined from G17 (ferret-originated) and Ave3 (chicken-originated), indicating that transmissions across species and regions may occur. Sixteen representative amino acid mutation sites were identified: nine in VP1 (12 R/H, 114S/N, 123I/M, 167 L/P, 231 P/S, 237 P/L, 243 R/W, 335 T/A, and 444S/N), four in VP2 (81 A/P, 103 R/H, 223 R/G, and 228 A/T), and three in VP3 (38 M/I, 61 A/T, and 65 V/A). These mutations were only harbored in strains identified in dogs and cats in this study. Whether this is related to host tropism needs further investigation. In this study, GyVg1 was identified in the sera of dogs and cats, and the molecular characteristics prompted the attention of public health.

Keywords:

• Gyrovirus galga1
• dogs
• cats
• phylogenetic analysis
• recombination analysis

Author contributions

S.X., Y.M., and Z.Y. conceived the study and designed the experiments. S.X., Y.M., Z.Y., and J.J. performed the experiments. L.Y., Y.B., Y.K., and Q.X. provided the reagents or assistance. S.X., Y.M., X.X., and J.J. analyzed the data. L.Y. and J.J. obtained funding. Y.K. and L.Y. supervised the research. S.X., Z.Y., and J.J. wrote the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflicts of interest were reported by the authors.

Ethical approval

Sampling of dog and cat for this study was approved by the South China Agricultural University Committee for Animal Experiments (approved ID: SYXK 2019-0136, June 8, 2020). Additionally, informed consent was obtained from all pet owners involved in the study.

Data availability statement

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 31870917) and the Program for Science & Technology Innovation Talents in Universities of Henan Province (Grant no. 22HASTIT042).