Environmental Variability and Evolution of Virus Specialists and Generalists

虽然有些病毒可以很容易地转移到感染新的宿主种群，但其他病毒仍然局限于它们的原始宿主。这项研究探讨了环境因素，使病毒成为专家，感染少数主机或多面手，攻击各种主机。这一目标是通过在实验室培养水泡性口炎病毒的实验进化来实现的。第一个主要目标是观察宿主可用性的不同模式是否会影响专业病毒或通用病毒的进化，并可用于预测哪些病毒更有可能在未来转移到新的宿主。第二是确定病毒基因组的变化与进化的宿主转移有关。第三是确定专家和通用病毒的种群在进化速度上是否不同。研究方法包括分子生物学、群体遗传学、基因组学和进化理论等多个学科的技术，由于病毒是野生和驯养动植物群体中的重要致病因子，项目结果可应用于多个系统。该项目病毒类似于许多媒介传播的人类病毒（如西尼罗河热病毒）;因此，该项目应有助于阐明促进病毒宿主转移到人群中的环境因素。

Whereas some viruses can easily shift to infect new host populations, other viruses remain confined to their original host. This research examines the environmental factors which cause viruses to be specialists that infect few hosts or generalists that attack a variety of hosts. This goal is accomplished using experimental evolution of Vesicular Stomatitis Virus in laboratory culture. The first major objective is to see if different patterns of host availability affect whether specialist or generalist viruses will evolve, and can be used to predict which viruses are more likely to shift to new hosts in the future. Second is to identify the changes to the virus genome that are associated with evolved host shifts. Third is to determine whether populations of specialist and generalist viruses differ in the rate at which they evolve. Methods include techniques from a variety of disciplines, including molecular biology, population genetics, genomics and evolutionary theory.The project results can be applied to several systems because viruses are important disease agents in wild and domesticated populations of animals and plants. The project virus resembles many vector-borne human viruses (such as West Nile Fever Virus); thus, the project should help elucidate environmental factors promoting viral host shifts into human populations.