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CRISPR analysis suggests that small circular single-stranded DNA smacoviruses infect Archaea instead of humans

Author

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  • César Díez-Villaseñor

    (Universidad Miguel Hernández)

  • Francisco Rodriguez-Valera

    (Universidad Miguel Hernández)

Abstract

Smacoviridae is a family of small (~2.5 Kb) CRESS-DNA (Circular Rep Encoding Single-Stranded (ss) DNA) viruses. These viruses have been found in faeces, were thought to infect eukaryotes and are suspected to cause gastrointestinal disease in humans. CRISPR-Cas systems are adaptive immune systems in prokaryotes, wherein snippets of genomes from invaders are stored as spacers that are interspersed between a repeated CRISPR sequence. Here we report several spacer sequences in the faecal archaeon Candidatus Methanomassiliicoccus intestinalis matching smacoviruses, implicating the archaeon as a firm candidate for a host. This finding may be relevant to understanding the potential origin of smacovirus-associated human diseases. Our results support that CRESS-DNA viruses can infect non-eukaryotes, which would mean that smacoviruses are the viruses with the smallest genomes to infect prokaryotes known to date. A probable target strand bias suggests that, in addition to double-stranded DNA, the CRISPR-Cas system can target ssDNA.

Suggested Citation

  • César Díez-Villaseñor & Francisco Rodriguez-Valera, 2019. "CRISPR analysis suggests that small circular single-stranded DNA smacoviruses infect Archaea instead of humans," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-08167-w
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-08167-w
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    Cited by:

    1. Ran Li & Yongming Wang & Han Hu & Yan Tan & Yingfei Ma, 2022. "Metagenomic analysis reveals unexplored diversity of archaeal virome in the human gut," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Yongming Wang & Ran Li & Yingfei Ma, 2024. "Reply to: Inaccurate viral prediction leads to overestimated diversity of the archaeal virome in the human gut," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-3, December.

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