Viruses of Freshwater Mussels during Mass Mortality Events in Oregon and Washington, USA

Freshwater mussels (Unionida) are globally imperiled, in part due to largely unexplained mass mortality events (MMEs). While recent studies have begun to investigate the possibility that mussel MMEs in the Eastern USA may be caused by infectious diseases, mussels in the Western USA have received rel...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Viruses 2023-08, Vol.15 (8), p.1719
Main Authors: Richard, Jordan C, Blevins, Emilie, Dunn, Christopher D, Leis, Eric M, Goldberg, Tony L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
bivalve
Bivalvia
die-off
Epidemiology
Evaluation
Fresh Water
freshwater mussel
Health aspects
Hemolymph
Infectious diseases
mass mortality
Metagenomics
Mollusks
Morbidity
Mortality
Mussels
Oregon
Pandas
Rivers
Unionidae
United States
virome
Viruses
Washington - epidemiology
Watersheds
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Freshwater mussels (Unionida) are globally imperiled, in part due to largely unexplained mass mortality events (MMEs). While recent studies have begun to investigate the possibility that mussel MMEs in the Eastern USA may be caused by infectious diseases, mussels in the Western USA have received relatively little attention in this regard. We conducted a two-year epidemiologic investigation of the role of viruses in ongoing MMEs of the Western pearlshell ( ) and the Western ridged mussel ( ) in the Chehalis River and Columbia River watersheds in the Western USA. We characterized viromes of mussel hemolymph from 5 locations in 2018 and 2020 using metagenomic methods and identified 557 viruses based on assembled contiguous sequences, most of which are novel. We also characterized the distribution and diversity of a previously identified mussel related to pathogenic finfish viruses. Overall, we found few consistent associations between viruses and mussel health status. Variation in mussel viromes was most strongly driven by location, with little influence from date, species, or health status, though these variables together only explained ~1/3 of variation in virome composition. Our results demonstrate that Western freshwater mussels host remarkably diverse viromes, but no single virus or combination of viruses appears to be associated with morbidity or mortality during MMEs. Our findings have implications for the conservation of imperiled freshwater mussels, including efforts to enhance natural populations through captive propagation.
ISSN:1999-4915
1999-4915
DOI:10.3390/v15081719