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Virus structures constrain transmission modes

Nature Microbiology volume 4, pages 1778–1780 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Here we investigate links between the structures of viruses and routes of transmission. Viruses show a wide range of different structures, and the transmission of viruses between vertebrate hosts can take place through many different routes. We compiled a database of 243 virus–host combinations and report a statistical analysis that documents the associations between structures and routes of transmission—for example, viruses that are transmitted by the faecal–oral mode of infection are rarely enclosed in a lipid envelope.

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Fig. 1: Summary of structures of human viruses and their modes of transmission.
Fig. 2: Associations between virus structures and modes of transmission.

Data availability

All of the data used are presented as tables in the Supplementary Information.

Code availability

Code used is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3246601.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Abbas, P. Bates and L. Taylor for suggestions and comments on the manuscript; and L. Zimmerman for help with the manuscript. This work was supported by NIH grants R61-HL137063 and R01-HL113252, the Penn Center for AIDS Research (P30 AI 045008) and the PennCHOP Microbiome Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Frederic D. Bushman, Kevin McCormick & Scott Sherrill-Mix

Authors
  1. Frederic D. Bushman
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  2. Kevin McCormick
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  3. Scott Sherrill-Mix
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Contributions

F.D.B. conceived the work, assembled the initial database and wrote the paper. S.S.-M. and K.M. developed the electronic versions of the data, helped to reference the database and carried out the statistical analyses. S.S.-M. developed the statistical analytical strategy. K.M. developed the automated reference search strategy.

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Correspondence to Frederic D. Bushman.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–6.

Reporting Summary

Supplementary Table 1

Data on classification, structure and transmission for viruses of humans, cats, dogs, cows, horses, pigs and chickens.

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Bushman, F.D., McCormick, K. & Sherrill-Mix, S. Virus structures constrain transmission modes. Nat Microbiol 4, 1778–1780 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-019-0523-5

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