Influence of host ecology, social system and phylogeny on the genetic covariation of viruses and hosts, and on virus prevalences, within and between bat species

要了解宿主-病毒关系的对抗性和进化动力学，需要关于宿主和病毒的遗传协变和生态相互作用的信息。然而，影响宿主和病毒协变的过程之间的相互作用在很大程度上是未知的。最重要的是，目前尚不清楚影响宿主扩散的生态条件和社会障碍以及不同宿主物种之间的关联程度在多大程度上影响了病毒在宿主物种内和宿主物种之间的传播。了解这些过程将能够在规定的生态条件下对病毒剂向人类或家畜传播的风险进行评估。该项目一方面调查三种蝙蝠及其体外寄生虫(潜在媒介)的生态、行为和遗传结构与侵袭蝙蝠的不同病毒的遗传结构和流行之间的联系。其目的是了解生态条件与相互作用物种的生活史特征之间的关系，以帮助病毒克服物种障碍并定居新的宿主。蝙蝠提供了一个理想的模型系统来研究病毒与给定宿主的协变以及与不同宿主的共种，这是因为：1)蝙蝠社会系统的可变性，2)蝙蝠物种之间共享栖息地的频率不同，3)蝙蝠高度的社会互动(殖民地)和易移动(飞行)蝙蝠可以非常迅速地传播病毒。

Understanding the antagonistic nature and evolutionary dynamics of host-virus relationships requires information on the genetic covariation and ecological interactions of hosts and viruses. However, the interplay between the processes that influence covariation of hosts and viruses is largely unknown. Above all, it is unclear to what degree ecological conditions and social barriers affecting host dispersal and the degree of association among different host species influence virus transmission within and among host species. Understanding such processes will enable a risk evaluation for the transmission of viral agents to humans or to domestic animals under defined ecological conditions. This project investigates the links between the ecology, behaviour and genetic structure of three bat species and their ectoparasites (potential vectors) on the one hand and the genetic structures and prevalence of different viruses that infest bats, on the other hand. The aim is to understand the relationship between ecological conditions and life history traits of the interacting species that may help viruses to overcome species barriers and colonize novel hosts. Bats provide an ideal model system to study covariation of viruses with a given host and cospeciation with different hosts due to: 1) the variability of bat social systems, 2) bat species differ in how regularly they share roosts with each other and 3) their high level of social interaction (coloniality) and ease of mobility (flight) bats can spread viruses very rapidly.