IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Biek, R.; Drummond, A.J.; Poss, M. | |
| A virus reveals population structure and recent demographic history of its carnivore host | |
| 2006 Science (311): 538-541 | |
Directly transmitted parasites often provide substantial information about the temporal and spatial characteristics of host-to-host contact. Here, we demonstrate that a fast-evolving virus (feline immunodeficiency virus, FIV) can reveal details of the contemporary population structure and recent demographic history of its natural wildlife host (_Puma concolor_) that were not apparent from host genetic data and would be impossible to obtain by other means. We suggest that rapidly evolving pathogens may provide a complementary tool for studying population dynamics of their hosts in ''shallow'' time. |
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