_:nea6698922aa6434aa487f56b3c718e53xb0
<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Viral outbreaks in dolphins and other Delphinoidea family members warrant investigation into the integrity of the cetacean immune system  The dynamin-like GTPase genes Myxovirus 1  Mx1  and Mx2 defend mammals against a broad range of viral infections  Loss of Mx1 function in human and mice enhances infectivity by multiple RNA and DNA viruses  including orthomyxoviruses  influenza A   paramyxoviruses  measles   and hepadnaviruses  hepatitis B   whereas loss of Mx2 function leads to decreased resistance to HIV-1 and other viruses  Here we show that both Mx1 and Mx2 have been rendered nonfunctional in Odontoceti cetaceans  toothed whales  including dolphins and orcas   We discovered multiple exon deletions  frameshift mutations  premature stop codons  and transcriptional evidence of decay in the coding sequence of both Mx1 and Mx2 in four species of Odontocetes  We trace the likely loss event for both proteins to soon after the divergence of Odontocetes and Mystocetes  baleen whales     33   37 Mya  Our data raise intriguing questions as to what drove the loss of both Mx1 and Mx2 genes in the Odontoceti lineage  a double loss seen in none of 56 other mammalian genomes  and suggests a hitherto unappreciated fundamental genetic difference in the way these magnificent mammals respond to viral infections "
<https://aims.mysciencework.com/search/publications?facets%5Bjournal%5D%5B0%5D=Proceedings%20of%20the%20National%20Academy%20of%20Sciences>