Estimation of Virus Host Range using Receptor Sequence

Abstract

Although attempts have been made to dealing with emerging and re-emerging viruses causing infectious diseases for decades, there are still limitations in prediction of the risk of infection or transmission of diverse viral pathogens. In this study, we evaluated the risk of cross-species infection of the virus through evolutionary distance matrix and phylogenetic analysis using receptor sequences. We defined the DI (distance index) to the maximum value of the evolutionary distance for infected hosts, and the host range was estimated using the DI for all taxa on the phylogenetic tree. The reconstructed trees showed that taxa with values less than or equal to DI are primarily assessed as potential hosts by clustering into the host range with regard to the receptor similarity. Interestingly, the distribution of distance values for each tree showed that the host range is more clearly classified in the receptor-based trees than in the mt-based trees, although the classification patterns were highly similar. In conclusion, we have found that the similarity of the receptor proteins, which was measured by evolutionary distance and phylogenetic relationship, can be used as a useful parameter to predict the virus host range, and may be more appropriate than using mitochondrial genomes.