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. 2021 Jul 29;21(1):148.
doi: 10.1186/s12862-021-01878-7.

Cospeciation of coronavirus and paramyxovirus with their bat hosts in the same geographical areas

Jie Liang #  1 , Chunchao Zhu #  2 , Libiao Zhang  3
Affiliations

Cospeciation of coronavirus and paramyxovirus with their bat hosts in the same geographical areas

Jie Liang et al. BMC Ecol Evol. .

Abstract

Background: Bat-borne viruses are relatively host specific. We hypothesize that this host specificity is due to coevolution of the viruses with their hosts. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the coevolution of coronavirus and paramyxovirus with their bat hosts. Published nucleotide sequences of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene of 60 coronavirus strains identified from 37 bat species, the RNA polymerase large (L) gene of 36 paramyxovirus strains from 29 bat species, and the cytochrome B (cytB) gene of 35 bat species were analyzed for coevolution signals. Each coevolution signal detected was tested and verified by global-fit cophylogenic analysis using software ParaFit, PACo, and eMPRess.

Results: Significant coevolution signals were detected in coronaviruses and paramyxoviruses and their bat hosts, and closely related bat hosts were found to carry closely related viruses.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that paramyxovirus and coronavirus coevolve with their hosts.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coevolution; Coronavirus; Hendra virus; MERS; Nipha virus; Paramyxovirus; SARS.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Phylogenetic analysis of the 2734-bp RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene of coronaviruses from humans and various species of bats
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Tanglegram of cophylogenetic relationship between bat hosts and coronaviruses. Black lines denote significant coevolution links between coronaviruses and their hosts (ParaFit tests P ≤ 0.05), and gray lines denote non-significant links. Different groups of coronaviruses and bat species with significant coevolution links are marked with boxes in different colors. Information on host geographical distribution was derived from Simmons (2005)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Tanglegram of cophylogenetic relationships between bat hosts and paramyxoviruses. Black lines denote significant coevolution links between paramyxoviruses and their hosts (ParaFit tests P ≤ 0.05), and gray lines denote non-significant links. Different groups of paramyxoviruses and bat species with significant coevolution links are marked with boxes in different colors. Information on host geographical distribution was derived from Simmons (2005)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
P-value histogram of (A) host–coronavirus and (B) host–paramyxovirus relationships. The optimal reconciliation cost of the coevolution trees is indicated with a red line, and the optimal cost of the same trees constructed with tip associations permuted at random is shown in blue columns
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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