ViralX - Determinants of viral crossing of species barriers

Viral host changing is an important but rare event. These events, caused by mutations in parasitic viruses, allow them to jump between species and thereby change the hosts the virus requires for replication, to the detriment of this new host. Very little is known about the processes taking place during these events, as they have only been observed a handful of times. Therefore, we aim to make the first evolutionary experiment with optimal conditions to demonstrate viral host switching between species. In this way, we can gain new, crucial information about viral species jumps, allowing us to gauge the most important factors involved in the process, in real-time. By understanding how viruses are able to change host we might be able to predict what viruses are more likely to perform this species jump in the future and perhaps even prevent this event from occurring.