Data from: Genome-wide association study of an unusual dolphin mortality event reveals candidate genes for susceptibility and resistance to cetacean morbillivirus

Infectious diseases are significant demographic and evolutionary drivers
of populations, but studies about the genetic basis of disease resistance
and susceptibility are scarce in wildlife populations. Cetacean
morbillivirus (CeMV) is a highly contagious disease that is increasing in
both geographic distribution and incidence, causing unusual mortality
events (UME) and killing tens of thousands of individuals across multiple
cetacean species worldwide since the late 1980’s. The largest CeMV
outbreak in the Southern Hemisphere reported to date occurred in Australia
in 2013, where it was a major factor in a UME, killing mainly young
Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus). Using cases
(non-survivors) and controls (putative survivors) from the most affected
population, we carried out a genome-wide association study to identify
candidate genes for resistance and susceptibility to CeMV. The genomic
dataset consisted of 278,147,988 sequence reads and 35,493 high quality
SNPs genotyped across 38 individuals. Association analyses found highly
significant differences in allele and genotype frequencies amongst cases
and controls at 65 SNPs, and Random Forests conservatively identified
eight as candidates. Annotation of these SNPs identified five candidate
genes (MAPK8, FBXW11, INADL, ANK3, and ACOX3) with functions associated
with stress, pain and immune responses. Our findings provide the first
insights into the genetic basis of host defence to this highly contagious
disease, enabling the development of an applied evolutionary framework to
monitor CeMV resistance across cetacean species. Biomarkers could now be
established to assess potential risk factors associated with these genes
in other CeMV affected cetacean populations and species. These results
could also possibly aid in the advancement of vaccines against
morbilliviruses.