Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• McBride, Dillon S
• Garushyants, Sofya K
• Franks, John
• Magee, Andrew F
• Overend, Steven H
• Huey, Devra
• Williams, Amanda M
• Faith, Seth A
• Kandeil, Ahmed
• Trifkovic, Sanja
• Miller, Lance
• Jeevan, Trushar
• Patel, Anami
• Nolting, Jacqueline M
• Tonkovich, Michael J
• Genders, J Tyler
• Montoney, Andrew J
• Kasnyik, Kevin
• Linder, Timothy J
• Bevins, Sarah N
• Lenoch, Julianna B
• Chandler, Jeffrey C
• DeLiberto, Thomas J
• Koonin, Eugene V
• Suchard, Marc A
• Lemey, Philippe
• Webby, Richard J
• Nelson, Martha I
• Bowman, Andrew S

Titel

Accelerated evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in free-ranging white-tailed deer

Ist Teil von

• Nature communications, 2023-08, Vol.14 (1), p.5105-5105, Article 5105

Ort / Verlag

England: Nature Publishing Group

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek - Frei zugängliche E-Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The zoonotic origin of the COVID-19 pandemic virus highlights the need to fill the vast gaps in our knowledge of SARS-CoV-2 ecology and evolution in non-human hosts. Here, we detected that SARS-CoV-2 was introduced from humans into white-tailed deer more than 30 times in Ohio, USA during November 2021-March 2022. Subsequently, deer-to-deer transmission persisted for 2-8 months, disseminating across hundreds of kilometers. Newly developed Bayesian phylogenetic methods quantified how SARS-CoV-2 evolution is not only three-times faster in white-tailed deer compared to the rate observed in humans but also driven by different mutational biases and selection pressures. The long-term effect of this accelerated evolutionary rate remains to be seen as no critical phenotypic changes were observed in our animal models using white-tailed deer origin viruses. Still, SARS-CoV-2 has transmitted in white-tailed deer populations for a relatively short duration, and the risk of future changes may have serious consequences for humans and livestock.