1. Accelerated evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in free-ranging white-tailed deer.
- Author
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McBride, Dillon, Garushyants, Sofya, Franks, John, Magee, Andrew, Overend, Steven, Huey, Devra, Williams, Amanda, Faith, Seth, Kandeil, Ahmed, Trifkovic, Sanja, Miller, Lance, Jeevan, Trushar, Patel, Anami, Nolting, Jacqueline, Tonkovich, Michael, Genders, J, Montoney, Andrew, Kasnyik, Kevin, Linder, Timothy, Bevins, Sarah, Lenoch, Julianna, Chandler, Jeffrey, DeLiberto, Thomas, Koonin, Eugene, Suchard, Marc, Lemey, Philippe, Webby, Richard, Nelson, Martha, and Bowman, Andrew
- Subjects
Animals ,Humans ,SARS-CoV-2 ,COVID-19 ,Bayes Theorem ,Deer ,Pandemics ,Phylogeny - Abstract
The zoonotic origin of the COVID-19 pandemic virus highlights the need to fill the vast gaps in our knowledge of SARS-CoV-2 ecology and evolution in non-human hosts. Here, we detected that SARS-CoV-2 was introduced from humans into white-tailed deer more than 30 times in Ohio, USA during November 2021-March 2022. Subsequently, deer-to-deer transmission persisted for 2-8 months, disseminating across hundreds of kilometers. Newly developed Bayesian phylogenetic methods quantified how SARS-CoV-2 evolution is not only three-times faster in white-tailed deer compared to the rate observed in humans but also driven by different mutational biases and selection pressures. The long-term effect of this accelerated evolutionary rate remains to be seen as no critical phenotypic changes were observed in our animal models using white-tailed deer origin viruses. Still, SARS-CoV-2 has transmitted in white-tailed deer populations for a relatively short duration, and the risk of future changes may have serious consequences for humans and livestock.
- Published
- 2023