Understanding the emergence of bacterial pathogens in novel hosts
dc.contributor.author | Bonneaud, C | |
dc.contributor.author | Weinert, LA | |
dc.contributor.author | Kuijper, B | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2019-06-27T14:37:22Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2019-08-12 | |
dc.description.abstract | Our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary context of novel infections is largely based on viral diseases, even though bacterial pathogens may display key differences in the processes underlying their emergence. For instance, host-shift speciation, in which the jump of a pathogen into a novel host species is followed by the specialisation on that host and the loss of infectivity of previous host(s), is commonly observed in viruses, but less often in bacteria. Here, we suggest that adaptation to dealing with different environments, rates of molecular evolution and recombination may influence the extent to which pathogens evolve host generalism or specialism following a jump into a novel host. We then test these hypotheses using a formal model and show that the high levels of phenotypic plasticity, low rates of evolution and the ability to recombine typical of bacterial pathogens should reduce their propensity to specialise on novel host. Novel bacterial infections may therefore be more likely to result in transient spillovers or increased host ranges than in host shifts. Finally, consistent with our predictions, we show that, in two unusual cases of contemporary bacterial host shifts, the bacterial pathogens both have small genomes and rapid rates of substitution. Further tests are required across a greater number of emerging pathogens to assess the validity of our predictions. | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Wellcome Trust | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Royal Society | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Leverhulme Trust | en_GB |
dc.identifier.citation | Vol. 374 (1782), article 20180328 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1098/rstb.2018.0328 | |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | NE/M00256X/1 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | 109385/Z/15/Z | en_GB |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | ECF 2015-273 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | RPG-2018-380 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/37719 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | Royal Society | en_GB |
dc.relation.url | https://github.com/megabyte22/pathogen_specialization | en_GB |
dc.rights | © 2019 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
dc.subject | emerging infectious disease | en_GB |
dc.subject | host range | en_GB |
dc.subject | phenotypic plasticity | en_GB |
dc.subject | specialisation | en_GB |
dc.subject | spill-over | en_GB |
dc.title | Understanding the emergence of bacterial pathogens in novel hosts | en_GB |
dc.type | Article | en_GB |
dc.date.available | 2019-06-27T14:37:22Z | |
dc.identifier.issn | 0962-8436 | |
dc.description | This is the author accepted manuscript. | en_GB |
dc.description | Data accessibility statement: The computer code to generate the stochastic simulation model can be downloaded from | en_GB |
dc.identifier.eissn | 1471-2970 | |
dc.identifier.journal | Philosophical Transactions B: Biological Sciences | en_GB |
dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | en_GB |
dcterms.dateAccepted | 2019-04-04 | |
exeter.funder | ::Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) | en_GB |
rioxxterms.version | VoR | en_GB |
rioxxterms.licenseref.startdate | 2019-04-04 | |
rioxxterms.type | Journal Article/Review | en_GB |
refterms.dateFCD | 2019-06-26T20:01:44Z | |
refterms.versionFCD | AM | |
refterms.dateFOA | 2019-10-11T11:06:55Z | |
refterms.panel | A | en_GB |
Files in this item
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
Except where otherwise noted, this item's licence is described as © 2019 The Authors.
Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.