Preliminary insights into the genetics of bank vole tolerance to Puumala hantavirus in Sweden : XXXX

• Published in: Ecology and Evolution
• Main Authors: Rohfritsch, Audrey, Galan, Maxime, Gautier, Mathieu, Gharbi, Karim, Olsson, Gert, Gschloessl, Bernhard, Zeimes, Caroline, Vanwambeke, Sophie, Vitalis, Renaud, Charbonnel, Nathalie
• Other Authors: UCL - SST/ELI/ELIC - Earth & Climate
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2018
• Subjects: Ecology; Evolution; Behavior and Systematics; Nature and Landscape Conservation; Northern Bank; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/214118; https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4603

Natural reservoirs of zoonotic pathogens generally seem to be capable of tolerating infections. Tolerance and its underlying mechanisms remain difficult to assess using experiments or wildlife surveys. Highâ€throughput sequencing technologies give the opportunity to investigate the genetic bases of tolerance, and the variability of its mechanisms in natural populations. In particular, population genomics may provide preliminary insights into the genes shaping tolerance and potentially influencing epidemiological dynamics. Here, we addressed these questions in the bank vole Myodes glareolus, the specific asymptomatic reservoir host of Puumala hantavirus (PUUV), which causes nephropathia epidemica (NE) in humans. Despite the continuous spatial distribution of M. glareolus in Sweden, NE is endemic to the northern part of the country. Northern bank vole populations in Sweden might exhibit tolerance strategies as a result of coadaptation with PUUV. This may favor the circulation and maintenance of PUUV and lead to high spatial risk of NE in northern Sweden. We performed a genomeâ€scan study to detect signatures of selection potentially correlated with spatial variations in tolerance to PUUV. We analyzed six bank vole populations from Sweden, sampled from northern NEâ€endemic to southern NEâ€free areas. We combined candidate gene analyses (Tlr4, Tlr7, and Mx2 genes) and highâ€throughput sequencing of restriction siteâ€associated DNA (RAD) markers. Outlier loci showed high levels of genetic differentiation and significant associations with environmental data including variations in the regional number of NE human cases. Among the 108 outliers that matched to mouse proteinâ€coding genes, 14 corresponded to immunerelated genes. The main biological pathways found to be significantly enriched corresponded to immune processes and responses to hantavirus, including the regulation of cytokine productions, TLR cascades, and ILâ€7, VEGF, and JAK–STAT signaling. In the future, genomeâ€scan replicates and functional ...