Field-Reassortment of Bluetongue Virus Illustrates Plasticity of Virus Associated Phenotypic Traits in the Arthropod Vector and Mammalian Host In Vivo.

ABSTRACT: Segmented RNA viruses are a taxonomically diverse group that can infect plant, wildlife, livestock and human hosts. A shared feature of these viruses is the ability to exchange genome segments during coinfection of a host by a process termed "reassortment." Reassortment enables rapid evolutionary change, but where transmission involves a biological arthropod vector, this change is constrained by the selection pressures imposed by the requirement for replication in two evolutionarily distant hosts. In this study, we use an in vivo, host-arbovirus-vector model to investigate the impact of reassortment on two phenotypic traits, virus infection rate in the vector and virulence in the host. Bluetongue virus (BTV) (Reoviridae) is the causative agent of bluetongue (BT), an economically important

SUBMITTER: Sanders C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9278112 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature