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Parasite hybridization promotes spreading of endosymbiotic viruses
Author(s)
University of Antwerp
Ilse Maes
Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde
Mandy Sanders
Wellcome Sanger Institute
Lon‐Fye Lye
Washington University in St. Louis
Jorge Arévalo
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
Alejandro Llanos‐Cuentas
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
Lineth García
Universidad Mayor de San Simón
Philippe Lemey
Rega Institute for Medical Research
Stephen M. Beverley
Washington University in St. Louis
James A. Cotton
Wellcome Sanger Institute
Jean‐Claude Dujardin
University of Antwerp
Frederik Van den Broeck
Rega Institute for Medical Research
Date Issued
25 de marzo de 2023
Type
Preprint
Abstract
ABSTRACT 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 endosymbiotic 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 parasites and their endosymbiotic Leishmania RNA virus. We show that parasite populations circulate in isolated pockets of suitable habitat and are associated with single viral lineages that appear in low prevalence. In contrast, groups of hybrid parasites were geographically and ecologically dispersed, and commonly infected from a pool of genetically diverse viruses. Our results suggest that parasite hybridization, likely due to increased human migration and ecological perturbations, increased the frequency of endosymbiotic interactions known to play a key role in disease severity.