Crossing host boundaries: the evolutionary drivers and correlates of viral host jumps
This article has been Reviewed by the following groups
Listed in
- Evaluated articles (Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases)
Abstract
Most emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases stem from viruses that naturally circulate in non-human vertebrates. When these viruses cross over into humans, they can cause disease outbreaks and epidemics. While zoonotic host jumps have been extensively studied from an ecological perspective, little attention has gone into characterising the evolutionary drivers and correlates underlying these events. To address this gap, we harnessed the entirety of publicly available viral genomic data, employing a comprehensive suite of network and phylogenetic analyses to investigate the evolutionary mechanisms underpinning recent viral host jumps. Notably, we challenge conventional assumptions about the directionality of host jumps, demonstrating that humans are as much a source as a sink for viral spillover events, insofar we infer more viral host jumps from humans to other animals, than from animals to humans. Moreover, we demonstrate heightened evolution in viral lineages that involve putative host jumps. We further observe that the extent of adaptation associated to a host jump is lower for viruses with broad host ranges. Finally, we show that the genomic targets of natural selection associated to host jumps vary across different viral families with either structural or auxiliary genes being the prime targets of selection. Collectively, our results illuminate some of the evolutionary drivers underlying viral host jumps that may contribute to mitigating viral threats across species boundaries.
Article activity feed
-
-
Brian Foley
Review 2: "Crossing Host Boundaries: The Evolutionary Drivers and Correlates of Viral Host Jumps"
This preprint finds more human-to-animal than zoonotic viral transmission, but reviewers recommend validating results with Bayesian phylogenetics, accounting for database biases, and clarifying analysis limitations that may impact reconstructing transmission histories.
-
Strength of evidence
Reviewers: C Brook (University of Chicago) | 📗📗📗📗◻️
B Foley (Los Alamos National Laboratory) | 📒📒📒◻️◻️ -
Cara Brook
Review 1: "Crossing Host Boundaries: The Evolutionary Drivers and Correlates of Viral Host Jumps"
This preprint finds more human-to-animal than zoonotic viral transmission, but reviewers recommend validating results with Bayesian phylogenetics, accounting for database biases, and clarifying analysis limitations that may impact reconstructing transmission histories.
-