Rabbit owned by Darwin helps explain myxomatosis fightback
By: News Archive
Nearly 70 years after myxomatosis decimated the rabbit populations of Australia, Britain and France, a new study involving UEA reveals how the species has evolved genetic resistance to the disease through natural selection.
An unprecedented study of rabbit DNA spanning 150 years and thousands of miles has revealed the genetic basis for the animal’s fightback against the deadly myxoma virus.
Using the latest technology, an international team led by the University of Cambridge and CIBIO Institute in Porto, extracted DNA from nearly 200 rabbits dating from 1865–2013.
One of the long-dead rabbits they extracted DNA from was once owned by Charles Darwin.
The scientists then sequenced nearly 20,000 genes to pinpoint mutations that have emerged since the myxomatosis pandemics of the 1950s.
The study, published today in the journal Science, shows that modern rabbits in Australia, the UK and France have acquired resistance to myxomatosis through the same genetic changes. And that this resistance relies on the cumulative impact of multiple mutations of different genes.
Lead author Joel Alves said: “We compared rabbits collected before the virus outbreak in the 1950s with modern populations that evolved resistance, and found that the same genes had changed in all three countries.
“Many of these genes play a key role in the rabbit immune system. Often evolution works through big changes in single genes, but our findings show that resistance to myxomatosis likely evolved through lots of small effects spread across the genome.”
The team collected historical samples from 11 natural history museums in the UK, France, Australia and the United States. One of the rabbits from which DNA was sequenced belonged to Charles Darwin and is now housed in London’s Natural History Museum.
Dr Diana Bell, from UEA’s School of Biological Sciences, said: “This research highlights the value of intercontinental interdisciplinary collaborative research amongst geneticists, ecologists, museums.
“It also shows the importance of long-term studies of species, which provided cryogenic samples and epidemiological data on myxomatosis.”
Joel Alves said: “It wasn’t easy to get samples from so many long-dead rabbits. Not all natural history museums keep rabbits because they are not very exotic compared to other species. But the museums we worked with have done a great job of keeping their specimens well preserved for decades. This and the availability of new technology gave us a unique opportunity.”
At a time when rabbit populations are collapsing across the UK and mainland Europe, this research may provide clues to the animal’s future. The team found that the protein that helps rabbits fend off the myxoma virus also has an antiviral effect on an unrelated virus called vesicular stomatitis.
Miguel Carneiro, from CIBIO, University of Porto, said: “While battling myxoma, rabbits may have increased their resistance to other viruses including, perhaps, rabbit haemorrhagic disease which is killing so many animals right now.”
Meanwhile, myxoma remains a serious threat to rabbits. Joel Alves said: “Viral evolution appears to be finding ways to counter the genetic adaptations which we’ve observed. Recent, more virulent recent strains of myxoma virus, have been found to be extremely immunosuppressive. So the arms race goes on.”
‘Parallel adaptation of rabbit populations to myxoma virus’ is published in the journal Science on February 14, 2019.
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