Comprehensive Evolutionary Analysis of Complete Epstein–Barr Virus Genomes from Argentina and Other Geographies
Ana Catalina Blazquez,
Ariel José Berenstein,
Carolina Torres,
Agustín Izquierdo,
Carol Lezama,
Guillermo Moscatelli,
Elena Noemí De Matteo,
Mario Alejandro Lorenzetti,
María Victoria Preciado
Affiliations
Ana Catalina Blazquez
Laboratorio de Biología Molecular, División Patología, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones en Patologías Pediátricas (IMIPP), CONICET-GCBA, Buenos Aires C1425EFD, Argentina
Ariel José Berenstein
Laboratorio de Biología Molecular, División Patología, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones en Patologías Pediátricas (IMIPP), CONICET-GCBA, Buenos Aires C1425EFD, Argentina
Carolina Torres
Instituto de Investigaciones en Bacteriología y Virología Molecular (IBaViM), Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires C1113AAD, Argentina
Agustín Izquierdo
División de Endocrinología, Centro de Investigaciones Endocrinológicas “Dr. César Bergadá” (CEDIE), CONICET-FEI-GCBA, Buenos Aires C1425EFD, Argentina
Carol Lezama
Unidad de Hepatología, Hospital de Niños Ricardo Gutiérrez, Buenos Aires C1425EFD, Argentina
Guillermo Moscatelli
Servicio de Parasitología y Chagas, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones en Patologías Pediátricas (IMIPP), CONICET-GCBA, Buenos Aires C1425EFD, Argentina
Elena Noemí De Matteo
Laboratorio de Biología Molecular, División Patología, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones en Patologías Pediátricas (IMIPP), CONICET-GCBA, Buenos Aires C1425EFD, Argentina
Mario Alejandro Lorenzetti
Laboratorio de Biología Molecular, División Patología, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones en Patologías Pediátricas (IMIPP), CONICET-GCBA, Buenos Aires C1425EFD, Argentina
María Victoria Preciado
Laboratorio de Biología Molecular, División Patología, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones en Patologías Pediátricas (IMIPP), CONICET-GCBA, Buenos Aires C1425EFD, Argentina
The sequence variability of the Epstein–Barr virus has been extensively studied throughout previous years in isolates from various geographic regions and consequent variations at both genetic and genomic levels have 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. The phylogenetic relations of the genomes, the geographic structure and variability of the data set, and the evolution rates for the whole genome and each gene were assessed. The present work contributes to overcoming the scarcity of complete EBV genomes from South America and is the most comprehensive geography-related variability study, which involved determining the actual contribution of each EBV gene to the geographic segregation of the entire genome. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, we established for the first time the evolution rate for the entire EBV genome based on a host–virus codivergence-independent assumption and assessed their evolution rates on a gene-by-gene basis, which were related to the encoded protein function. Considering the evolution of dsDNA viruses with a codivergence-independent approach may lay the basis for future research on EBV evolution. The exhaustive bioinformatic analysis performed on this new dataset allowed us to draw a novel set of conclusions regarding the genome evolution of EBV.