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Genomic associations with poxvirus across divergent island populations in Berthelot's pipit
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  • Eleanor Sheppard,
  • Claudia Martin,
  • Claire Armstrong,
  • Catalina González-Quevedo,
  • Juan Carlos Illera,
  • Alexander Suh,
  • Lewis Spurgin,
  • David Richardson
Eleanor Sheppard
University of East Anglia

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Claudia Martin
University of East Anglia
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Claire Armstrong
University of East Anglia
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Catalina González-Quevedo
University of East Anglia
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Juan Carlos Illera
Universidad de Oviedo
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Alexander Suh
University of East Anglia
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Lewis Spurgin
University of East Anglia
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David Richardson
University of East Anglia
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Abstract

Understanding the mechanisms and genes that enable animal populations to adapt to pathogens is important from an evolutionary, health and conservation perspective. Berthelot’s pipit (Anthus berthelotii) experiences extensive and consistent spatial heterogeneity in avian pox infection pressure across its range of island populations, thus providing an excellent system with which to examine how pathogen-mediated selection drives spatial variation in immunogenetic diversity. Here we test for evidence of genetic variation associated with avian pox at both an individual and population-level. At the individual level, we find no evidence that variation in MHC class I and TLR4 (both known to be important in recognising viral infection) was associated with pox infection within two separate populations. However, using genotype-environment association (Bayenv) in conjunction with genome-wide (ddRAD-seq) data, we detected strong associations between population-level avian pox prevalence and allele frequencies of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at a number of sites across the genome. These sites were located within genes involved in cellular stress signalling and immune responses, many of which have previously been associated with responses to viral infection in humans and other animals. Consequently, our analyses provide evidence that pathogen-mediated selection has shaped genomic variation among relatively recently colonised island bird populations, and highlights the utility of genotype-environment associations for identifying candidate genes involved in adaption to local pathogen pressures.
03 Dec 2021Submitted to Molecular Ecology
06 Dec 2021Submission Checks Completed
06 Dec 2021Assigned to Editor
17 Dec 2021Reviewer(s) Assigned
21 Jan 2022Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
24 Jan 2022Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
04 Mar 2022Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
04 Mar 20221st Revision Received
11 Mar 2022Reviewer(s) Assigned
04 Apr 2022Editorial Decision: Accept
18 Apr 2022Published in Molecular Ecology. 10.1111/mec.16461