title: Preferential host switching and its relation with Hantavirus diversification in South America.
abstract: In recent years, the notion of co-speciation between Hantavirus species and their hosts was discarded in favour of a more likely explanation: preferential host switching. However, the relative importance of this last process in shaping the evolutionary history of hantaviruses remains uncertain, given the present limited knowledge not only of virus-host relationships but also of the pathogen and reservoir phylogenies. In South America, more than 25 hantavirus genotypes were detected; several of them act as aetiological agents of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). An understanding of the diversity of hantaviruses and of the processes underlying host switching is critical since human cases of HPS are almost exclusively the result of human-host interactions. In this study, we tested if preferential host switching is the main process driving hantavirus diversification in South America, by performing a co-phylogenetic analysis of the viruses and their primary hosts. We also suggest a new level of amino acid divergence to define virus species in the group. Our results indicate that preferential host switching would not be the main process driving virus diversification. The historical geographical proximity among rodent hosts emerges as an alternative hypothesis to be tested.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal (CONICET-UNC) and Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina, Av. Vélez Sarsfield 299, 5000 Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: Paula C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Rivera
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal (CONICET-UNC) and Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina, Av. Vélez Sarsfield 299, 5000 Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: Raul E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: González-Ittig
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal (CONICET-UNC) and Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina, Av. Vélez Sarsfield 299, 5000 Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: Cristina N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Gardenal
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006476:Orthohantavirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology; D018778:Hantavirus Infections / Q000821:virology*; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D013020:South America; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D014764:Viral Proteins