Dating the origin of the genus Flavivirus in the light of Beringian biogeography

Abstract

The genus Flavivirus includes some of the most important human viral pathogens, and its members are found in all parts of the populated world. The temporal origin of diversification of the genus has long been debated due to the inherent problems with dating deep RNA virus evolution. A generally accepted hypothesis suggests that Flavivirus emerged within the last 10 000 years. However, it has been argued that the tick-borne Powassan flavivirus was introduced into North America some time between the opening and closing of the Beringian land bridge that connected Asia and North America 15 000–11 000 years ago, indicating an even older origin for Flavivirus. To determine the temporal origin of Flavivirus, we performed Bayesian relaxed molecular clock dating on a dataset with high coverage of the presently available Flavivirus diversity by combining tip date calibrations and internal node calibration, based on the Powassan virus and Beringian land bridge biogeographical event. Our analysis suggested that Flavivirus originated ~85 000 (64 000–110 000) or 120 000 (87 000–159 000) years ago, depending on the circumscription of the genus. This is significantly older than estimated previously. In light of our results, we propose that it is likely that modern humans came in contact with several members of the genus Flavivirus much earlier than suggested previously, and that it is possible that the spread of several flaviviruses coincided with, and was facilitated by, the migration and population expansion of modern humans out of Africa.