In:
mBio, American Society for Microbiology, Vol. 4, No. 3 ( 2013-07)
Abstract:
St. Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV) is the prototypic mosquito-transmitted flavivirus of the Americas. Unlike the West Nile virus, which we know was recently introduced into North America from the Old World, the provenience of SLEV is obscure. In an ecological investigation in a primary rainforest area of Palenque National Park, Mexico, we have discovered an ancestral variant of SLEV. The ancestral virus was much less active than the epidemic virus in cell cultures, reflecting its incomplete adaptation to hosts encountered outside primary rainforests. Knowledge of this virus enabled a spatiotemporal reconstruction of the common ancestor of all SLEVs and how the virus spread from there. We can infer that the cosmopolitan SLEV lineage emerged from Central America in the 17th century, a period of post-Columbian colonial history marked by intense human invasion of primary rainforests. Further spread followed major bird migration pathways over North and South America.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2161-2129
,
2150-7511
DOI:
10.1128/mBio.00322-13
Language:
English
Publisher:
American Society for Microbiology
Publication Date:
2013
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2557172-2
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