Host alternation of chikungunya virus increases fitness while restricting population diversity and adaptability to novel selective pressures.

ABSTRACT: The mechanisms by which RNA arboviruses, including chikungunya virus (CHIKV), evolve and maintain the ability to infect vertebrate and invertebrate hosts are poorly understood. To understand how host specificity shapes arbovirus populations, we studied CHIKV populations passaged alternately between invertebrate and vertebrate cells (invertebrate ↔ vertebrate) to simulate natural alternation and contrasted the results with those for populations that were artificially released from cycling by passage in single cell types. These CHIKV populations were characterized by measuring genetic diversity, changes in fitness, and adaptability to novel selective pressures. The greatest fitness increases were observed in alternately passaged CHIKV, without drastic changes in population diversity. The gre

SUBMITTER: Coffey LL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3020036 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature