Subspecific rodent taxa as the relevant host taxonomic level for mammarenavirus host specificity
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Date
2023
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier Inc.
Abstract
Mastomys natalensis-borne mammarenaviruses appear specific to subspecific M. natalensis taxa rather than to the
whole species. Yet mammarenaviruses carried by M. natalensis are known to spill over and jump hosts in northern
sub-Saharan Africa. Phylogeographic studies increasingly show that, like M. natalensis, small mammals in sub-
Saharan Africa are often genetically structured into several subspecific taxa. Other mammarenaviruses may
thus also form virus-subspecific host taxon associations. To investigate this, and if mammarenaviruses carried by
M. natalensis in southern Africa are less prone to spill-over, we screened 1225 non-M. natalensis samples from
Tanzania where many small mammal taxa meet. We found mammarenavirus RNA in 6 samples. Genetic/genomic
characterisation confirmed they were not spill-over from M. natalensis. We detected host jumps among rodent
tribe members and an association between mammarenaviruses and subspecific taxa of Mus minutoides and
Grammomys surdaster, indicating host genetic structure may be crucial to understand virus distribution and host
specificity.
Description
Article
Keywords
Host specificity, Host genetic structure, Comparative phylogeography, Songea virus, Berega virus, Ngerengere virus, Mus minutoides, Grammomys surdaster, Spill-over, Host jump
Citation
Corresponding author. E-mail address: lauracuypers@outlook.be (L.N. Cuypers). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2023.02.014