title: When Viruses Don't Go Viral: The Importance of Host Phylogeographic Structure in the Spatial Spread of Arenaviruses.
abstract: Many emerging infections are RNA virus spillovers from animal reservoirs. Reservoir identification is necessary for predicting the geographic extent of infection risk, but rarely are taxonomic levels below the animal species considered as reservoir, and only key circumstances in nature and methodology allow intrinsic virus-host associations to be distinguished from simple geographic (co-)isolation. We sampled and genetically characterized in detail a contact zone of two subtaxa of the rodent Mastomys natalensis in Tanzania. We find two distinct arenaviruses, Gairo and Morogoro virus, each spatially confined to a single M. natalensis subtaxon, only co-occurring at the contact zone's centre. Inter-subtaxon hybridization at this centre and a continuum of quality habitat for M. natalensis show that both viruses have the ecological opportunity to spread into the other substaxon's range, but do not, strongly suggesting host-intrinsic barriers. Such barriers could explain why human cases of another M. natalensis-borne arenavirus, Lassa virus, are limited to West Africa.
authors.affiliation: Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4851-9384
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gryseels
authors.affiliation: Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Research Facility Studenec, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Stuart J E
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Baird
authors.affiliation: Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
authors.forename: Benny
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7779-4107
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Borremans
authors.affiliation: Pest Management Centre, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania.
authors.forename: Rhodes
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4672-2354
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Makundi
authors.affiliation: Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
authors.forename: Herwig
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7612-5024
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Leirs
authors.affiliation: Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.|Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Research Facility Studenec, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Joëlle
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Goüy de Bellocq
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018050:Arenavirus / Q000145:classification* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D004197:Disease Reservoirs / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D007835:Lassa Fever / Q000821:virology; D007836:Lassa virus / Q000502:physiology; D051189:Murinae / Q000821:virology*; D058974:Phylogeography; D012376:Rodent Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D013045:Species Specificity; D013636:Tanzania