Genetic Bottlenecks in Intraspecies Virus Transmission

Overview

Journal Curr Opin Virol

Publisher Elsevier

Specialty Microbiology

Date 2017 Nov 7

PMID 29107838

Citations 74

Authors

John T McCrone

Adam S Lauring

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Ultimately, viral evolution is a consequence of mutations that arise within and spread between infected hosts. The transmission bottleneck determines how much of the viral diversity generated in one host passes to another during transmission. It therefore plays a vital role in linking within-host processes to larger evolutionary trends. Although many studies suggest that transmission severely restricts the amount of genetic diversity that passes between individuals, there are important exceptions to this rule. In many cases, the factors that determine the size of the transmission bottleneck are only beginning to be understood. Here, we review how transmission bottlenecks are measured, how they arise, and their consequences for viral evolution.

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