Researchers discover new viruses in Antarctic penguins, expanding viral knowledge in polar ecosystems
24 November 2025
International research team identify 35 viral genomes in Antarctic penguins, revealing how wildlife and viruses evolve together in extreme environments. The paper, titled 'Diversity of polyomaviruses and papillomaviruses in penguins from eastern and western Antarctica' is published in Microbial Genomics.
An international collaborative team encompassing scientists at Arizona State University, Point Blue Conservation Science, Oregon State University, H.T. Harvey & Associates Ecological Consultants in USA and Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales and University of Alcalá in Spain have discovered dozens of previously unknown viruses in Antarctic penguins, revealing a hidden layer of biological diversity in one of the planet’s most extreme environments.
The study, published in Microbial Genomics, identified 31 polyomaviruses and four papillomaviruses in Adélie, chinstrap and gentoo penguins sampled across eastern and western Antarctica. Two of the papillomaviruses are new to science.
“There's very little known about Antarctic virology in terms of these animals that breed in this region,” said Arvind Varsani, a virologist in ASU’s School of Life Sciences, Biodesign Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics and senior author of the study. “Over the last 15 years, we've been kind of putting in quite a bit of an effort to try and understand the viral landscape associated with Antarctic animals which include penguins, skuas, seals and ice fish.”
The research expands knowledge of viruses that circulate among penguin species, which sheds light on how wildlife and microbes co-evolve. Varsani says the team focused on polyomaviruses and papillomaviruses, both groups of DNA viruses known to infect vertebrates and have some level of host lineage specificity. Therefore, spatial and temporal datasets of polyomaviruses and papillomaviruses associated with Antarctic penguins can enhance our understanding of virus–host interactions and viral evolution in these flightless birds compared to flying birds as well as geographical movement/restriction by proxy of identifying viral lineages.
“With the polyomaviruses, what we're seeing is also a trend based on groupings, or species,” Varsani says. “These viruses seem to have been embedded in a population, and as the population has bred in different parts of the continent, the virus lineages appear to be circulating within those populations.”
The researchers found that certain viral variants appeared only in specific penguin species or locations, suggesting strong links between host species and geography. In two gentoo penguins, the team found two polyomavirus variants at the same time, the first evidence of co-occurrence in penguins.
Samples were collected from more than 400 penguins between 2021 and 2024, including Adélie, chinstrap, gentoo and emperor penguins. Field sites spanned penguin breeding colonies on Ross Island in the Ross Sea region and multiple locations on the Antarctic Peninsula. None of the sampled penguins showed signs of illness or visible lesions.
The study is part of a long-term collaboration between researchers at Point Blue Conservation Science, H.T. Harvey & Associates Ecological Consultants, Oregon State University and Arizona State University with funding and logistic support from the National Science Foundation. “It's an ongoing study,” Varsani says. “We team up with researchers from Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales and University of Alcalá in Spain who have been working in the Antarctic Peninsula to cover a broader geographical range in terms of penguin breeding colonies.”
2025 is Penguin Science’s 30th year of research at the penguin breeding colonies on Ross Island at the colonies. Varsani has been part of the team for the last 15 years and has been part of the field team in Antarctica for 8 seasons as part of the effort.
“Antarctic virology is poorly documented because limited work has been done in this area,” Varsani says. “We need to collect a significant amount of this baseline data to even understand broader impacts as a consequence of what might be happening when there are drastic changes in the ecosystem.”
While Varsani says we cannot tell the impacts of climate change on viral dynamics in penguins due to poor knowledge of viral diversity and base-line data, it can affect their overall health. “Due to environmental stresses, would the animals also be a lot more stressed? And would they succumb to much more severe disease outcomes?”
The study’s findings highlight the importance of baseline viral monitoring in understanding Antarctic and other ecosystems. “Ultimately, we can start using certain ’viral signatures’ to actually look at trophic interactions or even movement of the penguins between two different geographical locations,” Varsani says.
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Image: Arvind Varsani.