TY - JOUR

T1 - Variation in predicted COVID-19 risk among lemurs and lorises

AU - Melin, Amanda D.

AU - Orkin, Joseph D.

AU - Janiak, Mareike C.

AU - Valenzuela, Alejandro

AU - Kuderna, Lukas

AU - Marrone, Frank

AU - Ramangason, Hasinala

AU - Horvath, Julie E.

AU - Roos, Christian

AU - Kitchener, Andrew C.

AU - Khor, Chiea Chuen

AU - Lim, Weng Khong

AU - Lee, Jessica G. H.

AU - Tan, Patrick

AU - Umapathy, Govindhaswamy

AU - Raveendran, Muthuswamy

AU - Alan Harris, R.

AU - Gut, Ivo

AU - Gut, Marta

AU - Lizano, Esther

AU - Nadler, Tilo

AU - Zinner, Dietmar

AU - Le, Minh D.

AU - Manu, Sivakumara

AU - Rabarivola, Clément J.

AU - Zaramody, Alphonse

AU - Andriaholinirina, Nicole

AU - Johnson, Steig E.

AU - Jarvis, Erich D.

AU - Fedrigo, Olivier

AU - Wu, Dongdong

AU - Zhang, Guojie

AU - Farh, Kyle Kai-How

AU - Rogers, Jeffrey

AU - Marques-Bonet, Tomas

AU - Navarro, Arcadi

AU - Juan, David

AU - Arora, Paramjit S.

AU - Higham, James P.

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which in humans leads to the disease COVID-19, has caused global disruption and more than 2 million fatalities since it first emerged in late 2019. As we write, infection rates are at their highest point globally and are rising extremely rapidly in some areas due to more infectious variants. The primary target of SARS-CoV-2 is the cellular receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2). Recent sequence analyses of the ACE2 gene predict that many nonhuman primates are also likely to be highly susceptible to infection. However, the anticipated risk is not equal across the Order. Furthermore, some taxonomic groups show high ACE2 amino acid conservation, while others exhibit high variability at this locus. As an example of the latter, analyses of strepsirrhine primate ACE2 sequences to date indicate large variation among lemurs and lorises compared to other primate clades despite low sampling effort. Here, we report ACE2 gene and protein sequences for 71 individual strepsirrhines, spanning 51 species and 19 genera. Our study reinforces previous results while finding additional variability in other strepsirrhine species, and suggests several clades of lemurs have high potential susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Troublingly, some species, including the rare and endangered aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis), as well as those in the genera Avahi and Propithecus, may be at high risk. Given that lemurs are endemic to Madagascar and among the primates at highest risk of extinction globally, further understanding of the potential threat of COVID-19 to their health should be a conservation priority. All feasible actions should be taken to limit their exposure to SARS-CoV-2.

AB - The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which in humans leads to the disease COVID-19, has caused global disruption and more than 2 million fatalities since it first emerged in late 2019. As we write, infection rates are at their highest point globally and are rising extremely rapidly in some areas due to more infectious variants. The primary target of SARS-CoV-2 is the cellular receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2). Recent sequence analyses of the ACE2 gene predict that many nonhuman primates are also likely to be highly susceptible to infection. However, the anticipated risk is not equal across the Order. Furthermore, some taxonomic groups show high ACE2 amino acid conservation, while others exhibit high variability at this locus. As an example of the latter, analyses of strepsirrhine primate ACE2 sequences to date indicate large variation among lemurs and lorises compared to other primate clades despite low sampling effort. Here, we report ACE2 gene and protein sequences for 71 individual strepsirrhines, spanning 51 species and 19 genera. Our study reinforces previous results while finding additional variability in other strepsirrhine species, and suggests several clades of lemurs have high potential susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Troublingly, some species, including the rare and endangered aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis), as well as those in the genera Avahi and Propithecus, may be at high risk. Given that lemurs are endemic to Madagascar and among the primates at highest risk of extinction globally, further understanding of the potential threat of COVID-19 to their health should be a conservation priority. All feasible actions should be taken to limit their exposure to SARS-CoV-2.

U2 - 10.1002/ajp.23255

DO - 10.1002/ajp.23255

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 33792947

AN - SCOPUS:85103937939

VL - 83

JO - American Journal of Primatology

JF - American Journal of Primatology

SN - 0275-2565

IS - 6

M1 - e23255

ER -