Genomic analysis of the brassica pathogen turnip mosaic potyvirus reveals its spread along the former trade routes of the Silk Road
Shusuke Kawakubo, Fangluan Gao, Shifang Li, Zhongyang Tan, Ying‐Kun Huang, Charith Raj Adkar‐Purushothama, Chennappa Gurikar, Phoowanarth Maneechoat, P. Chiemsombat, Seint San Aye, Naruto Furuya, Oleksiy Shevchenko, Josef Špak, Dijana Škorić, Simon Y. W. Ho, Kazusato Ohshima
Abstract
Significance Our article presents the most comprehensive reconstruction of the evolutionary and phylogeographic history of a major plant pathogen of brassica vegetables in Eurasia. Sampling across such a large landmass poses considerable challenges, and our study attempts to describe the spatial and temporal patterns of migration for a plant pathogen on a large scale. Our phylogeographic and molecular clock analyses show that the migration pathways of turnip mosaic potyvirus retrace some of the historical trade arteries of the Silk Road. This study demonstrates how a comprehensive genetic analysis can provide a large-scale view of the epidemiology and human-mediated spread of a plant pathogen across centuries of evolutionary history.