Viromes of Antarctic fish resemble the diversity found at lower latitudes.

Antarctica harbours some of the most isolated and extreme environments on Earth, concealing a largely unexplored and unique component of the global animal virosphere. To understand the diversity and evolutionary histories of viruses in these polar species, we determined the viromes of gill metatranscriptomes from 11 Antarctic fish species with 248 samples collected from the Ross Sea region spanning the Perciformes, Gadiformes, and Scorpaeniformes orders. The continent's shift southward and cooling temperatures >20 million years ago led to a reduction in biodiversity and subsequent radiation of some marine fauna, such as the notothenioid fishes.

From islands to infectomes: host-specific viral diversity among birds across remote islands.

Background: Accelerating biodiversity loss necessitates monitoring the potential pathogens of vulnerable species. With a third of New Zealand's avifauna considered at risk of extinction, a greater understanding of the factors that influence microbial transmission in this island ecosystem is needed. We used metatranscriptomics to determine the viruses, as well as other microbial organisms (i.

Virome analysis of New Zealand's bats reveals cross-species viral transmission among the .

The lesser short-tailed bat () and the long-tailed bat () are Aotearoa New Zealand's only native extant terrestrial mammals and are believed to have migrated from Australia. Long-tailed bats arrived in New Zealand an estimated two million years ago and are closely related to other Australian bat species. Lesser short-tailed bats, in contrast, are the only extant species within the Mystacinidae and are estimated to have been living in isolation in New Zealand for the past 16-18 million years.

Total infectome investigation of diphtheritic stomatitis in yellow-eyed penguins (Megadyptes antipodes) reveals a novel and abundant megrivirus.

First identified in 2002, diphtheritic stomatitis (DS) is a devastating disease affecting yellow-eyed penguins (Megadyptes antipodes, or hoiho in te reo Māori). The disease is associated with oral lesions in chicks and has caused significant morbidity and mortality. DS is widespread among yellow-eyed penguin chicks on mainland New Zealand yet appears to be absent from the subantarctic population.

Host specificity shapes fish viromes across lakes on an isolated remote island.

Fish viromes often provide insights into the origin and evolution of viruses affecting tetrapods, including those associated with imporant human diseases. However, despite fish being the most diverse vertebrate group, their viruses are still understudied. We investigated the viromes of fish on Chatham Island (Rēkohu), a geographically isolated island housing 9% of New Zealand's threatened endemic fish species.

Cloacal virome of an ancient host lineage - The tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) - Reveals abundant and diverse diet-related viruses.

Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) are one of the most phylogenetically isolated vertebrate species and provide a unique host system to study virus evolution. While the tuatara genome, sequenced in 2020, revealed many endogenous viral elements, we know little of the exogenous viruses that infect tuatara. We performed a metatranscriptomics study of tuatara cloaca samples from a wild population on Takapourewa (Stephens Island), Aotearoa New Zealand.

Slippery when wet: cross-species transmission of divergent coronaviruses in bony and jawless fish and the evolutionary history of the .

The comprise a genetically diverse group of positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus families that infect a range of invertebrate and vertebrate hosts. Recent metagenomic studies have identified nido-like virus sequences, particularly those related to the , in a range of aquatic hosts including fish, amphibians, and reptiles. We sought to identify additional members of the in both bony and jawless fish through a combination of total RNA sequencing (meta-transcriptomics) and data mining of published RNA sequencing data and from this reveal more of the long-term patterns and processes of coronavirus evolution.

A Novel Rubi-Like Virus in the Pacific Electric Ray () Reveals the Complex Evolutionary History of the .

(RuV) is the causative agent of rubella ("German measles") and remains a global health concern. Until recently, RuV was the only known member of the genus and the only virus species classified within the family of positive-sense RNA viruses. Recently, two new rubella-like matonaviruses, and , have been identified in several mammalian species, along with more divergent viruses in fish and reptiles.

The factor XIII Val34Leu polymorphism: is it protective against idiopathic venous thromboembolism?

The substitution of leucine for valine at amino acid position 34 of the factor XIII gene is commonly referred to as FXIII Val34Leu polymorphism. The homozygous leucine/leucine genotype has been reported to confer protection against venous thromboembolism, but previous studies have not evaluated a population limited to those with idiopathic venous thromboembolism. The primary objective of the study was to determine whether the FXIII Val34Leu polymorphism is independently associated with the occurrence of idiopathic venous thromboembolism.

Home-treatment of deep vein thrombosis in patients with cancer.

Background And Objectives: Outpatient treatment of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) has become a common practice. However, in some centers cancer patients with DVT are excluded from home treatment because they have a higher risk of both bleeding and recurrent DVT. We performed a retrospective review of clinical practice patterns to assess the rate of cancer patients who were deemed eligible for outpatient treatment of their DVT.

Analytical validation of the tag-it high-throughput microsphere-based universal array genotyping platform: application to the multiplex detection of a panel of thrombophilia-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms.

Background: We have developed a novel, microsphere-based universal array platform referred to as the Tag-It platform. This platform is suitable for high-throughput clinical genotyping applications and was used for multiplex analysis of a panel of thrombophilia-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).

Methods: Genomic DNA from 132 patients was amplified by multiplex PCR using 6 primer sets, followed by multiplex allele-specific primer extension using 12 universally tagged genotyping primers.