1/ @VignuzziLab, was thinking about the #arbovirus problem quite a bit. You say, arbos are „generalist“ genomes optimally adapted to both, insect and mammal hosts. I am very sure this should mean arbos, more than others, should have quite some potential to...
2/ … to further adapt (higher replication & titers) to one specific host. Sure enough, this would compromise fitness in the other host, BUT what keeps the individual virus from adapting, i.e. why is the generalist consensus conserved throughout the lifecycle?
3/ From my lousy understanding of evolution, the pressure to stay adapted to two very different hosts, while very strong, would act only on the species level. So I would guess there must be strong (genetic) constraints in place, so to speak „no go areas“ in the fitness landscape.
/4 Do you have any thoughts on this? Probably I should simply read some work of yours or Raul Andino, but this is simply so far off my own topic. Your talk yesterday just got me thinking; reminds me, I once ALMOST got into this field together with @cbg_et 🙂
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