Changes in Diversification Patterns and Signatures of Selection during the Evolution of Murinae-Associated Hantaviruses

Guillaume Castel,Maria Razzauti,Emmanuelle Jousselin,Gael Kergoat,Jean-François Cosson

doi:10.3390/v6031112

Abstract

In the last 50 years, hantaviruses have significantly affected public health worldwide, but the exact extent of the distribution of hantavirus diseases, species and lineages and the risk of their emergence into new geographic areas are still poorly known. In particular, the determinants of molecular evolution of hantaviruses circulating in different geographical areas or different host species are poorly documented. Yet, this understanding is essential for the establishment of more accurate scenarios of hantavirus emergence under different climatic and environmental constraints. In this study, we focused on Murinae-associated hantaviruses (mainly Seoul Dobrava and Hantaan virus) using sequences available in GenBank and conducted several complementary phylogenetic inferences. We sought for signatures of selection and changes in patterns and rates of diversification in order to characterize hantaviruses’ molecular evolution at different geographical scales (global and local). We then investigated whether these events were localized in particular geographic areas. Our phylogenetic analyses supported the assumption that RNA virus molecular variations were under strong evolutionary constraints and revealed changes in patterns of diversification during the evolutionary history of hantaviruses. These analyses provide new knowledge on the molecular evolution of hantaviruses at different scales of time and space.

Highlights

Pathologies caused by hantaviruses are considered as emerging diseases with important public health impact worldwide because of the recent detection of new species of hantavirus in Africa, Asia, America and Europe [1,2,3,4,5], the increase in the amplitude and frequency of outbreaks of human hantaviruses [6,7,8] and the expansion of the geographic distribution of Seoul virus in the UnitedKingdom, Belgium and France [2,9,10]
Hantaviruses are responsible of the Hantavirus Cardio-Pulmonary Syndrome (HCPS) in the Western hemisphere and the Haemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS) in the Old Word [8]
The general mixed Yule coalescent (GMYC) model was preferred over the null model of uniform branching rates

Summary

Introduction

Pathologies caused by hantaviruses are considered as emerging diseases with important public health impact worldwide because of the recent detection of new species of hantavirus in Africa, Asia, America and Europe [1,2,3,4,5], the increase in the amplitude and frequency of outbreaks of human hantaviruses [6,7,8] and the expansion of the geographic distribution of Seoul virus in the UnitedKingdom, Belgium and France [2,9,10]. Pathologies caused by hantaviruses are considered as emerging diseases with important public health impact worldwide because of the recent detection of new species of hantavirus in Africa, Asia, America and Europe [1,2,3,4,5], the increase in the amplitude and frequency of outbreaks of human hantaviruses [6,7,8] and the expansion of the geographic distribution of Seoul virus in the United. Various studies have shown that interactions between wild reservoirs and hantaviruses were more complex than previously described. Hantaviruses are responsible of the Hantavirus Cardio-Pulmonary Syndrome (HCPS) in the Western hemisphere and the Haemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS) in the Old Word [8]. An outbreak of HCPS occurred in the summer of 2012 in Yosemite National Park in California with a high rate of fatal cases (30%) [7] and about 150,000 cases of HFRS are thought to occur annually worldwide [8]

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