Intracellular Diversity of WNV within Circulating Avian Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Reveals Host-Dependent Patterns of Polyinfection.

ABSTRACT: Arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus) populations exist as mutant swarms that are maintained between arthropods and vertebrates. West Nile virus (WNV) population dynamics are host-dependent. In American crows, purifying selection is weak and population diversity is high compared to American robins, which have 100- to 1000-fold lower viremia. WNV passed in robins leads to fitness gains, whereas that passed in crows does not. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that high crow viremia allows for higher genetic diversity within individual avian peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), reasoning that this could have produced the previously observed host-specific differences in genetic diversity and fitness. Specifically, we infected cells and birds with a molecularly barcoded WNV and sequenced v

SUBMITTER: Talmi-Frank D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10300861 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature