2023 Spring Poster Symposium

Human-associated Redondoviruses Infect the Oral Protozoan Entamoeba gingivalis

Redondoviruses are circular Rep-encoding single-stranded DNA (CRESS) viruses of high prevalence in healthy humans. Redondovirus abundance is increased in oro-respiratory samples from individuals with periodontitis, acute illness, and severe COVID-19. We investigated potential host cells supporting redondovirus replication in oro-respiratory samples and uncovered the oral amoeba Entamoeba gingivalis as the host. Redondoviruses are closely related to viruses of Entamoeba and contain reduced GC nucleotide content, consistent with an Entamoeba host. Redondovirus and E. gingivalis co-occur in metagenomic data from oral disease and healthy human cohorts. When grown in xenic cultures with feeder bacteria, E. gingivalis was robustly positive for redondovirus RNA and DNA. A DNA proximity-ligation assay (Hi-C) on xenic culture cells showed enriched cross-linking of redondovirus and Entamoeba DNA, supporting E. gingivalis as the host of redondovirus replication. While bacteria are established hosts for bacteriophages within the human virome, this work shows that eukaryotic commensals also contribute an abundant human-associated virus.

PRESENTED BY
University Scholars
College of Arts & Sciences 2023
Advised By
Frederic Bushman
Professor and Chair of Microbiology
Ronald Collman
Professor of Medicine
PRESENTED BY
University Scholars
College of Arts & Sciences 2023
Advised By
Frederic Bushman
Professor and Chair of Microbiology
Ronald Collman
Professor of Medicine

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