Genome Reference Assembly for Bottlenecked Southern Australian Koalas.

Koala populations show marked differences in inbreeding levels and in the presence or absence of the endogenous Koala retrovirus (KoRV). These genetic differences among populations may lead to severe disease impacts threatening koala population viability. In addition, the recent colonization of the koala genome by KoRV provides a unique opportunity to study the process of retroviral adaptation to vertebrate genomes and the impact this has on speciation, genome structure, and function.

Genetic diversity of Koala retrovirus gene subtypes: insights into northern and southern koala populations.

Koala retrovirus (KoRV) is a recently endogenized retrovirus associated with neoplasia and immunosuppression in koala populations. The virus is known to display sequence variability and to be present at varying prevalence in different populations, with animals in southern Australia displaying lower prevalence and viral loads than northern animals. This study used a PCR and next-generation sequencing strategy to examine the diversity of the KoRV gene in both proviral DNA and viral RNA forms in two distinct populations representative of the 'northern' and 'southern' koala genotypes.