Reticulate evolution is favored in influenza niche switching.
Reticulate evolution is thought to accelerate the process of evolution beyond simple genetic drift and selection, helping to rapidly generate novel hybrids with combinations of adaptive traits. However, the long-standing dogma that reticulate evolutionary processes are likewise advantageous for switching ecological niches, as in microbial pathogen host switch events, has not been explicitly tested. We use data from the influenza genome sequencing project and a phylogenetic heuristic approach to show that reassortment, a reticulate evolutionary mechanism, predominates over mutational drift in transmission between different host species. Moreover, as host evolutionary distance increases, reassortment is increasingly favored. We conclude that the greater the quantitative difference between ecological niches, the greater the importance of reticulate evolutionary processes in overcoming niche barriers.
Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139; jrun@mit.edu ericmajinglong@gmail.com.
Eric J
0000-0003-0041-5989
EJ
Ma
Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139;
Nichola J
NJ
Hill
Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139;
Justin
J
Zabilansky
Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139;
Kyle
K
Yuan
Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139; Division of Comparative Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 jrun@mit.edu ericmajinglong@gmail.com.
Jonathan A
JA
Runstadler
D000818:Animals; D017753:Ecosystem; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000235:genetics* / Q000821:virology*; D029521:Alphainfluenzavirus / Q000235:genetics*; D016865:Reassortant Viruses / Q000235:genetics*; D013045:Species Specificity
ecology; host switch; influenza; reassortment; reticulate evolution