Changes in temperature alter the potential outcomes of virus host shifts

Author summary Emerging infectious diseases are often the result of a host shift, where a pathogen jumps from one host species into another. Understanding the factors underlying host shifts is a major goal for infectious disease research. This effort has been further complicated by the fact that host-parasite interactions are now taking place in a period of unprecedented global climatic warming. Here, we ask how host shifts are affected by temperature by carrying out experimental infections using an RNA virus across a wide range of related species, at three different temperatures. We find that as temperature increases the most susceptible species become more susceptible, and the least susceptible less so. This has important consequences for our understanding of host shift events in a changing climate as it suggests that temperature changes may affect the likelihood of a host shift into certain species.See it on Scoop.it, via Viruses, Immunology & Bioinformatics from Virology.uvic.ca
Changes in temperature alter the potential outcomes of virus host shifts
Source: Viral Bioinformatics