Summary Re‐establishment of heritable latitudinal clines in growth‐related traits has been recognised as evidence for adaptive evolution in invasive plants. However, less information is known about latitudinal clines in defence and joint clinal evolution of growth and defence in invasive plants. We planted 14 native Argentinean populations and 14 introduced Chinese populations of Alternanthera philoxeroides in replicate common gardens in China. We investigated the latitudinal clines of traits related to growth and defence, and plasticity of these traits in relation to experiment site and soil nitrogen. We found that chemical defence decreased with latitude in introduced populations but increased with latitude in native populations. For growth rate, latitudinal clines were positive in introduced populations but nonexistent in native populations. There were also parallel positive latitudinal clines in total/shoot biomass and specific leaf area. Experiment site affected the occurrence or magnitude of latitudinal clines in growth rate, branch intensity and triterpenoid saponins concentration. Introduced populations were more plastic to experiment site and soil nitrogen than native populations. We provide evidence for rapid evolution of clines in growth and defence in an invasive plant. Altered herbivory gradients and trade‐off between growth and defence may explain nonparallel clines between the native and introduced ranges.
Bats are reservoir hosts for many zoonotic viruses. Despite this, relatively little is known about the diversity and abundance of viruses within bats at the level of individual animals, and hence the frequency of virus co-infection and inter-species transmission. Using an unbiased meta-transcriptomics approach we characterised the mammalian associated viruses present in 149 individual bats sampled from Yunnan province, China. This revealed a high frequency of virus co-infection and species spillover among the animals studied, with 12 viruses shared among different bat species, which in turn facilitates virus recombination and reassortment. Of note, we identified five viral species that are likely to be pathogenic to humans or livestock, including a novel recombinant SARS-like coronavirus that is closely related to both SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV, with only five amino acid differences between its receptor-binding domain sequence and that of the earliest sequences of SARS-CoV-2. Functional analysis predicts that this recombinant coronavirus can utilize the human ACE2 receptor such that it is likely to be of high zoonotic risk. Our study highlights the common occurrence of inter-species transmission and co-infection of bat viruses, as well as their implications for virus emergence.
The relationship between herbivory and latitude may differ between native and introduced populations of invasive plants, which can generate latitudinal heterogeneity in the strength of enemy release. However, still little is known about how latitudinal heterogeneity in herbivore pressure influences latitudinal variation in defense phenotypes of invasive plants. We tested how latitudinal patterns in multi-variate defense syndromes differed between native (Argentinian) and introduced (Chinese) populations of the invasive herb Alternanthera philoxeroides. In addition, to better understand the drivers underlying latitudinal patterns, we also tested whether associations of defense syndromes with climate and herbivory differed between native and introduced ranges. We found that native plant populations clustered into three main defense syndromes associated with latitude. In contrast, we only found two defense syndromes in the introduced range. One matched the highlatitude syndrome from the native range, but was distributed at both the northern and southern range limits in the introduced range. The other was unique to the introduced range and occurred at mid-latitudes. Climatic conditions were associated with variation in syndromes in the native range, and climatic conditions and herbivory were associated with variation in syndromes in the introduced range. Together, our results demonstrate that plants may under the new environmental conditions in the introduced range show latitudinal patterns of defense syndromes that are different from those in their native range. This emphasizes that geographical dependence of population differentiation should be explicitly considered in studies on the evolution of defense in invasive plants.
Bats are reservoir hosts for many zoonotic viruses. Despite this, relatively little is known about the diversity and abundance of viruses within individual bats, and hence the frequency of virus co-infection and spillover among them. We characterize the mammal-associated viruses in 149 individual bats sampled from Yunnan province, China, using an unbiased meta-transcriptomics approach. This reveals a high frequency of virus co-infection (simultaneous infection of bat individuals by multiple viral species) and spillover among the animals studied, which may in turn facilitate virus recombination and reassortment. Of note, we identify five viral species that are likely to be pathogenic to humans or livestock, based on phylogenetic relatedness to known pathogens or in vitro receptor binding assays. This includes a novel recombinant SARS-like coronavirus that is closely related to both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. In vitro assays indicate that this recombinant virus can utilize the human ACE2 receptor such that it is likely to be of increased emergence risk. Our study highlights the common occurrence of co-infection and spillover of bat viruses and their implications for virus emergence.
Bats are reservoir hosts for many zoonotic viruses. Despite this, relatively little is known about the diversity and abundance of viruses within bats at the level of individual animals, and hence the frequency of virus co-infection and inter-species transmission. Using an unbiased meta-transcriptomics approach we characterised the mammalian associated viruses present in 149 individual bats sampled from Yunnan province, China. This revealed a high frequency of virus co-infection and species spillover among the animals studied, with 12 viruses shared among different bat species, which in turn facilitates virus recombination and reassortment. Of note, we identified five viral species that are likely to be pathogenic to humans or livestock, including a novel recombinant SARS-like coronavirus that is closely related to both SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV, with only five amino acid differences between its receptor-binding domain sequence and that of the earliest sequences of SARS-CoV-2. Functional analysis predicts that this recombinant coronavirus can utilize the human ACE2 receptor such that it is likely to be of high zoonotic risk. Our study highlights the common occurrence of inter-species transmission and co-infection of bat viruses, as well as their implications for virus emergence.
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