Taxonomic patterns in the zoonotic potential of mammalian viruses

PeerJ

article

Alex D. Washburne¹  Daniel E. Crowley¹  Daniel J. Becker¹  Kevin J. Olival²  Matthew Taylor¹  Vincent J. Munster³  Raina K. Plowright¹ 

[1] Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Montana State University;Ecohealth Alliance;National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease

关键词: Zoonosis;    Spillover;    Viruses;    Phylofactorization;    Epidemiology;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.5979

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Predicting and simplifying which pathogens may spill over from animals to humans is a major priority in infectious disease biology. Many efforts to determine which viruses are at risk of spillover use a subset of viral traits to find trait-based associations with spillover. We adapt a new method—phylofactorization—to identify not traits but lineages of viruses at risk of spilling over. Phylofactorization is used to partition the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses viral taxonomy based on non-human host range of viruses and whether there exists evidence the viruses have infected humans. We identify clades on a range of taxonomic levels with high or low propensities to spillover, thereby simplifying the classification of zoonotic potential of mammalian viruses. Phylofactorization by whether a virus is zoonotic yields many disjoint clades of viruses containing few to no representatives that have spilled over to humans. Phylofactorization by non-human host breadth yields several clades with significantly higher host breadth. We connect the phylogenetic factors above with life-histories of clades, revisit trait-based analyses, and illustrate how cladistic coarse-graining of zoonotic potential can refine trait-based analyses by illuminating clade-specific determinants of spillover risk.

【 授权许可】

CC BY