Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute for Medical Research, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Nat Commun. 2023 Dec 15;14(1):8343. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-44085-2.
Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on Earth and play a significant role in the evolution of many organisms and ecosystems. In pathogenic protozoa, the presence of viruses has been linked to an increased risk of treatment failure and severe clinical outcome. Here, we studied the molecular epidemiology of the zoonotic disease cutaneous leishmaniasis in Peru and Bolivia through a joint evolutionary analysis of Leishmania braziliensis and their dsRNA Leishmania virus 1. We show that parasite populations circulate in tropical rainforests and are associated with single viral lineages that appear in low prevalence. In contrast, groups of hybrid parasites are geographically and ecologically more dispersed and associated with an increased prevalence, diversity and spread of viruses. Our results suggest that parasite gene flow and hybridization increased the frequency of parasite-virus symbioses, a process that may change the epidemiology of leishmaniasis in the region.
病毒是地球上最丰富的生物实体，在许多生物和生态系统的进化中发挥着重要作用。在致病性原生动物中，病毒的存在与治疗失败和严重临床结果的风险增加有关。在这里，我们通过对巴西利什曼原虫及其 dsRNA 利什曼病毒 1 的联合进化分析，研究了秘鲁和玻利维亚的皮肤利什曼病的动物传染病的分子流行病学。我们表明，寄生虫种群在热带雨林中循环，与低流行率的单一病毒谱系有关。相比之下，混合寄生虫群在地理和生态上更加分散，与病毒的流行率、多样性和传播增加有关。我们的结果表明，寄生虫基因流和杂交增加了寄生虫-病毒共生的频率，这一过程可能改变该地区利什曼病的流行病学。
