Ebenezer, Andrew Theophilus. Testing natural selection of the adenovirus receptor gene CXADR in Anolis lizards. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-rz36-s645
DescriptionCXADR is expressed in a broad range of hosts and is explicitly exploited by Adenoviruses (AdVs) which undergo host transfers and hypothesized to coevolve with its host. AdVs infect Anoles, a highly diverse genus of reptiles with several strains and recorded cases of mortality and morbidity due to AdV infection. While AdV disease dynamics are studied diligently, evolutionary analyses of CXADR are lacking. I therefore chose to investigate the impacts that Adenovirus has influencing selection on CXADR in anoles, by performing evolutionary genomic analysis on DNA and RNA sequences collected via experimental and computational approaches. Using the data to (i) infer the evolutionary relationships of CXADR among anole species, (ii) test the prediction that CXADR in anoles will reveal a diverse pattern of positive natural selection due to selective pressure driven by Adenovirus, and (iii) reconstruct protein structures of CXADR to examine protein conservation in vertebrates. I found evidence for a mixture of natural selection in CXADR in anoles at varying evolutionary depths. Furthermore, I predicted the structure of CXADR is deeply conserved which suggests my observation of positive selection is remarkable given the relatively slow evolution of this gene.