Biology subjects

Imrie, R.

Publications and source records attributed to Imrie, R..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Understanding the emergence of the influenza A/H3N2 K subclade in its historical and evolutionary context

The emergence in 2025/26 of the influenza A/H3N2 K substrain (H3N2/K) was the cause of significant public health concern. This genetically divergent virus was assessed to have a strongly decreased reactivity to contemporary vaccine strains. Respectively prolonged and early influenza seasons in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres contributed to concerns about vaccine efficacy. Here we retrospectively assessed the genetic and antigenic properties of this virus, combining epidemiological surveillance data, computational antigenic analysis, and serological data using samples from a well-stratified UK cohort. In contrast to initial indications, we found that despite the genetic distinctiveness of H3N2/K the virus had undergone limited antigenic change, suggesting that its emergence was instead the result of selection for non-antigenic properties. We confirmed previous results showing that contemporary vaccines produced an enhanced neutralising response to H3N2/K but, in a stratified serological analysis, showed that responses to the J and K substrains were age-dependent, largely driven by patterns of vaccination. Our results have implications for antigenic surveillance and for public communication strategies in future influenza seasons.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Varying phylogenetic signal to four bacterial pathogens across species of Drosophilidae

Bacterial infections are one of the major sources threatening public health. Pathogen host shifts - where a pathogen jumps from one host species to another - are important sources of emerging infectious diseases. However, compared to viruses, we know relatively little about the factors that determine whether a bacteria can infect a novel host, such as how host phylogenetics constrains variation in pathogen-host range and the link between host phylogeny and the infectivity and virulence of a pathogen. Here, we experimentally examined susceptibility to bacterial infections using a panel of 36 Drosophilidae species and four pathogens (Providencia rettgeri, Pseudomonas entomophila, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus). The outcomes of infection differed greatly among pathogens and across host species. The host phylogeny explains a considerable amount of variation in susceptibility, with the greatest phylogenetic signal for P. rettgeri infection, explaining 94% of the variation in mortality. Positive correlations were observed between mortality and bacterial load for three out of the four pathogens. Correlations in susceptibility between the four pathogens were positive but largely non-significant, suggesting susceptibility is mostly pathogen-specific. These results suggest that susceptibility to bacterial pathogens may be predicted by the host phylogeny, but the effect may vary in magnitude between different bacteria.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2021

Virus relatedness predicts susceptibility in novel host species

Virus host shifts are a major source of outbreaks and emerging infectious diseases, and predicting the outcome of novel host and virus interactions remains a key challenge for virus research. The evolutionary relationships between host species can explain variation in transmission rates, virulence, and virus community composition between hosts, but the potential for different viruses to interact with host species effects has yet to be established. Here, we measure correlations in viral load of four Cripavirus isolates across experimental infections of 45 Drosophilidae host species. We find positive correlations between every pair of viruses tested, suggesting that broadly susceptible host clades could act as reservoirs and donors for certain types of viruses. Additionally, we find evidence of genotype-by-genotype interactions between viruses and host species, highlighting the importance of both host and virus traits in determining the outcome of virus host shifts. More closely related viruses tended to be more strongly correlated, providing tentative evidence that virus evolutionary relatedness may be a useful proxy for determining the likelihood of novel virus emergence, which warrants further research. Impact SummaryMany new infectious diseases are caused by viruses jumping into novel host species. Estimating the probability that jumps will occur, what the characteristics of new viruses will be, and how they are likely to evolve after jumping to new host species are major challenges. To solve these challenges, we require a detailed understanding of the interactions between different viruses and hosts, or metrics that can capture some of the variation in these interactions. Previous studies have shown that the evolutionary relationships between host species can be used to predict traits of infections in different hosts, including transmission rates and the damage caused by infection. However, the potential for different viruses to influence the patterns of these host species effects has yet to be determined. Here, we use four viruses of insects in experimental infections across 45 different fruit fly host species to begin to answer this question. We find similarities in the patterns of replication and persistence between all four viruses, suggesting susceptible groups of related hosts could act as reservoirs and donors for certain types of virus. However, we also find evidence that different virus genotypes interact in different ways with some host species. Viruses that were more closely related tended to behave in similar ways, and so we suggest that virus evolutionary relatedness may prove to be a useful metric for predicting the traits of novel infections and should be explored further in future studies.

evolutionary biology↗