When Viruses Don't Go Viral: The Importance of Host Phylogeographic Structure in the Spatial Spread of Arenaviruses

Many emerging infections are RNA virus spillovers from animal reservoirs. Reservoir identification is necessary for predicting the geographic extent of infection risk, but rarely are taxonomic levels below the animal species considered as reservoir, and only key circumstances in nature and methodolo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS pathogens 2017-01, Vol.13 (1), p.e1006073-e1006073
Main Authors: Gryseels, Sophie, Baird, Stuart J E, Borremans, Benny, Makundi, Rhodes, Leirs, Herwig, Goüy de Bellocq, Joëlle
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Animal behavior
Animals
Arenaviridae
Arenavirus - classification
Arenavirus - metabolism
Arenavirus - physiology
Arenaviruses
Biology
Biology and life sciences
Colleges & universities
Disease Reservoirs - virology
Ecology
Epidemics
Funding
Genetic aspects
Humans
Infections
Lassa Fever - virology
Lassa virus
Lassa virus - physiology
Mastomys natalensis
Medicine and Health Sciences
Murinae - virology
People and Places
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Phylogeography
Precipitation
Research and Analysis Methods
Rodent Diseases - virology
Species Specificity
Tanzania
Viruses
Zoonoses
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:Many emerging infections are RNA virus spillovers from animal reservoirs. Reservoir identification is necessary for predicting the geographic extent of infection risk, but rarely are taxonomic levels below the animal species considered as reservoir, and only key circumstances in nature and methodology allow intrinsic virus-host associations to be distinguished from simple geographic (co-)isolation. We sampled and genetically characterized in detail a contact zone of two subtaxa of the rodent Mastomys natalensis in Tanzania. We find two distinct arenaviruses, Gairo and Morogoro virus, each spatially confined to a single M. natalensis subtaxon, only co-occurring at the contact zone's centre. Inter-subtaxon hybridization at this centre and a continuum of quality habitat for M. natalensis show that both viruses have the ecological opportunity to spread into the other substaxon's range, but do not, strongly suggesting host-intrinsic barriers. Such barriers could explain why human cases of another M. natalensis-borne arenavirus, Lassa virus, are limited to West Africa.
ISSN:1553-7374
1553-7366
1553-7374
DOI:10.1371/journal.ppat.1006073