Phylogeographic reconstruction of the emergence and spread of Powassan virus in the northeastern United States

Powassan virus is an emerging tick-borne virus of concern for public health, but very little is known about its transmission patterns and ecology. Here, we expanded the genomic dataset by sequencing 279 Powassan viruses isolated from Ixodes scapularis ticks from the northeastern United States. Our p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:bioRxiv 2023-01
Main Authors: Vogels, Chantal Bf, Brackney, Doug E, Dupuis, Alan P, Robich, Rebecca M, Fauver, Joseph R, Brito, Anderson F, Williams, Scott C, Anderson, John F, Lubelczyk, Charles B, Lange, Rachel E, Prusinski, Melissa A, Kramer, Laura D, Gangloff-Kaufmann, Jody L, Goodman, Laura B, Baele, Guy, Smith, Robert P, Armstrong, Philip M, Ciota, Alexander T, Dellicour, Simon, Grubaugh, Nathan D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
COVID-19
Geographical distribution
Phylogeny
Phylogeography
Public health
Viruses
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Summary:Powassan virus is an emerging tick-borne virus of concern for public health, but very little is known about its transmission patterns and ecology. Here, we expanded the genomic dataset by sequencing 279 Powassan viruses isolated from Ixodes scapularis ticks from the northeastern United States. Our phylogeographic reconstructions revealed that Powassan virus lineage II was likely introduced or emerged from a relict population in the Northeast between 1940-1975. Sequences strongly clustered by sampling location, suggesting a highly focal geographical distribution. Our analyses further indicated that Powassan virus lineage II emerged in the northeastern U.S. mostly following a south to north pattern, with a weighted lineage dispersal velocity of ~3 km/year. Since the emergence in the Northeast, we found an overall increase in the effective population size of Powassan virus lineage II, but with growth stagnating during recent years. The cascading effect of population expansion of white-tailed deer and I. scapularis populations likely facilitated the emergence of Powassan virus in the northeastern U.S.Competing Interest StatementNDG is a consultant for Tempus Labs and the National Basketball Association for work related to COVID-19. All other authors declare no competing interests.Footnotes* Included details on priors used in the BETS analysis and provided trees, "xml" files, and log files for phylogeographic analyses.
DOI:10.1101/2022.10.14.512245