RESEARCH ARTICLE Genomic and phenotypic characterization of myxoma virus from Great Britain reveals multiple evolutionary pathways distinct from those in Australia Peter J. Kerr1,2, Isabella M. Cattadori3, Matthew B. Rogers4, Adam Fitch4, Adam Geber5, June Liu2, Derek G. Sim3, Brian Boag6, John-Sebastian Eden1, Elodie Ghedin5, Andrew F. Read3,7, Edward C. Holmes1* a1111111111 a1111111111 1 Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, School of Life and Environmental Sciences and Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia, 2 CSIRO a1111111111 Health and Biosecurity, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia, 3 Center for Infectious a1111111111 Disease Dynamics and Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, a1111111111 Pennsylvania 16802, United States of America, 4 University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261, United States of America, 5 Center for Genomics & Systems Biology, Department of Biology, New York University, New York, New York 10003, United States of America, 6 The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, DD2 5DA, United Kingdom, 7 Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States of America OPEN ACCESS *
[email protected] Citation: Kerr PJ, Cattadori IM, Rogers MB, Fitch A, Geber A, Liu J, et al. (2017) Genomic and phenotypic characterization of myxoma virus from Abstract Great Britain reveals multiple evolutionary pathways distinct from those in Australia. PLoS The co-evolution of myxoma virus (MYXV) and the European rabbit occurred independently Pathog 13(3): e1006252. doi:10.1371/journal. in Australia and Europe from different progenitor viruses. Although this is the canonical ppat.1006252 study of the evolution of virulence, whether the genomic and phenotypic outcomes of MYXV Editor: Roman Biek, University of Glasgow, evolution in Europe mirror those observed in Australia is unknown.