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Updated: May 14, 2026
04:52
Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations
Published on: February 3, 2023
Observing micro-evolutionary processes of viral populations at multiple scales.
Richard J Orton1, Caroline F Wright, Marco J Morelli
1College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.
Summary
Understanding pathogen evolution requires examining microevolutionary processes across various biological scales. Foot-and-mouth disease virus evolution shows similar patterns at tissue, animal, herd, and regional levels, with faster mutation rates during transmission between individuals.
Area of Science:
- Genomics
- Evolutionary Biology
- Virology
Background:
- Pathogen genome sequencing and data analysis offer new insights into transmission dynamics.
- Understanding microevolutionary processes across different biological scales is crucial for maximizing genetic data insights.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the evolutionary processes of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) at multiple scales: tissue, animal, herd, and region.
- To investigate how mutation, selection, and population expansion occur at these different scales.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of FMDV evolution across distinct biological scales.
- Assessment of nucleotide substitution rates at within-individual, individual-to-individual, and herd-to-herd transmission levels.
Main Results:
- Analogous evolutionary processes (population expansion, mutation, selection) were observed at all scales.
- Nucleotide substitution rates were faster during inter-individual transmission compared to within-individual transmission, suggesting bottleneck effects.
- Longer-term substitution rates were consistent between individual-to-individual and herd-to-herd transmission, but herd-level diversification was not maintained regionally.
Conclusions:
- Viral population bottlenecks during transmission between hosts may accelerate fixation of genetic variations.
- Pathogen evolution exhibits scale-invariant processes, but the retention of diversification varies across different transmission scales.
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