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Variation in the PRNP gene of Pere David’s deer (Elaphurus davidianus) may impact genetic vulnerability to chronic wasting disease

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Abstract

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy caused by prions that has spread across cervid species in North America since the 1960s and has recently been detected in Eurasian cervids. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) considers CWD to be of major concern for cervids in AZA-accredited facilities because of the indirect transmission risk of the disease and the impact of CWD regulatory protocols on captive breeding programs. Vulnerability to CWD is affected by variation in the PRNP gene that encodes the prion protein. We therefore sequenced PRNP in Pere David’s deer (Elaphurus davidianus), a species that was extinct in the wild for more than a century and descends from ca. 11 founders. In 27 individuals, we detected two PRNP haplotypes, designated Elad1 (51 of 54 sequences) and Elad2 (3 of 54 sequences). The two haplotypes are separated by four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), three of which are non-synonymous. Both Elad1 and Elad2 have polymorphisms that in other cervid taxa are associated with reduced vulnerability to CWD. The two haplotypes are more similar in sequence to PRNP in other cervids than to each other. This suggests that PRNP in cervids may have been under long-term balancing selection, as has been shown for PRNP in non-cervid taxa, and which could account for the presence of multiple haplotypes among founders. There may be a fitness benefit in maintaining both PRNP haplotypes in the species because variation in the prion protein amino acid sequence can limit transmission of CWD.

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Data availability

PRNP haplotype sequences for Pere David’s deer have been deposited in GenBank under accession numbers MW804582 and MW804583. Sample information is listed in Table 1.

Code availability

Not applicable.

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Acknowledgements

For providing Pere David’s deer samples, we thank The Wilds in Cumberland, Ohio; the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research in San Diego, California; and the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Bronx Zoo in Bronx, New York. We would like to thank Dr. Dee McAloose, Steve Metzler, Dr. Jean Paré, Dr. Cynthia Steiner and anyone else who was involved in providing sample information and assisting in sample preparation and collection. We thank Alida de Flamingh for assistance in designing Supplementary Fig. 1.

Funding

This work was supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Project Number ILLU 875-952 and ILLU 538-966. This work was also supported by the Francis M. and Harlie M. Clark Research Support Grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Tolulope I. N. Perrin-Stowe & Alfred L. Roca

  2. School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Tolulope I. N. Perrin-Stowe & Emily E. Terrill

  3. Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Yasuko Ishida, Jan E. Novakofski, Nohra E. Mateus-Pinilla & Alfred L. Roca

  4. The Wilds, Cumberland, OH, 43732, USA

    Dan Beetem

  5. San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, Escondido, CA, 92027, USA

    Oliver A. Ryder

  6. Department of Evolution, Behavior, and Ecology, Division of Biology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

    Oliver A. Ryder

  7. Natural History Survey-Prairie Research Institute University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61820, USA

    Jan E. Novakofski & Nohra E. Mateus-Pinilla

  8. Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Alfred L. Roca

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  1. Tolulope I. N. Perrin-Stowe
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Correspondence to Alfred L. Roca.

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Perrin-Stowe, T.I.N., Ishida, Y., Terrill, E.E. et al. Variation in the PRNP gene of Pere David’s deer (Elaphurus davidianus) may impact genetic vulnerability to chronic wasting disease. Conserv Genet 23, 313–323 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-021-01419-1

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