1. A virus reveals population structure and recent demographic history of its carnivore host.
- Author
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Biek R, Drummond AJ, and Poss M
- Subjects
- Alberta epidemiology, Animals, Bayes Theorem, British Columbia epidemiology, Ecosystem, Genes, env, Genes, pol, Geography, Lentivirus Infections epidemiology, Lentivirus Infections virology, Microsatellite Repeats, Molecular Sequence Data, Montana epidemiology, Phylogeny, Population Dynamics, Time Factors, Wyoming epidemiology, Evolution, Molecular, Immunodeficiency Virus, Feline classification, Immunodeficiency Virus, Feline genetics, Lentivirus Infections veterinary, Puma genetics, Puma virology
- Abstract
Directly transmitted parasites often provide substantial information about the temporal and spatial characteristics of host-to-host contact. Here, we demonstrate that a fast-evolving virus (feline immunodeficiency virus, FIV) can reveal details of the contemporary population structure and recent demographic history of its natural wildlife host (Puma concolor) that were not apparent from host genetic data and would be impossible to obtain by other means. We suggest that rapidly evolving pathogens may provide a complementary tool for studying population dynamics of their hosts in "shallow" time.
- Published
- 2006
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