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Diversity and dissemination of viruses in pathogenic protozoa
Author(s)
Ilse Maes
Mandy Sanders
Lon‐Fye Lye
Vanessa Adaui
Jorge Arévalo
Alejandro Llanos‐Cuentas
Lineth García
Philippe Lemey
Stephen M. Beverley
James A. Cotton
Jean‐Claude Dujardin
Frederik Van den Broeck
Date Issued
15 de diciembre de 2023
Type
Article
Volume
14
Issue
1
Start Page
8343
End Page
8343
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 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.
Keywords