Secondary contact between diverged host lineages entails ecological speciation in a European hantavirus ...

• Main Authors: Saxenhofer, Moritz, Schmidt, Sabrina, Ulrich, Rainer G., Heckel, Gerald
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science 2019
• Subjects: 570 Life sciences; biology; Common vole; Microtus arvalis
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7892/boris.127939; https://boris.unibe.ch/127939/

The diversity of viruses probably exceeds biodiversity of eukaryotes, but little is known about the origin and emergence of novel virus species. Experimentation and disease outbreak investigations have allowed the characterization of rapid molecular virus adaptation. However, the processes leading to the establishment of functionally distinct virus taxa in nature remain obscure. Here, we demonstrate that incipient speciation in a natural host species has generated distinct ecological niches leading to adaptive isolation in an RNA virus. We found a very strong association between the distributions of two major phylogenetic clades in Tula orthohantavirus (TULV) and the rodent host lineages in a natural hybrid zone of the European common vole (Microtus arvalis). The spatial transition between the virus clades in replicated geographic clines is at least eight times narrower than between the hybridizing host lineages. This suggests a strong barrier for effective virus transmission despite frequent dispersal and ...