Data from: Landscape genetics highlights the role of bank vole metapopulation dynamics in the epidemiology of Puumala hantavirus

Rodent host dynamics and dispersal are thought to be critical for hantavirus epidemiology as they determine pathogen persistence and transmission within and between host populations. We used landscape genetics to investigate how the population dynamics of the bank vole Myodes glareolus, the host of Puumala hantavirus (PUUV), vary with forest fragmentation and influence PUUV epidemiology. We sampled vole populations within the Ardennes, a French PUUV endemic area. We inferred demographic features such as population size, isolation and migration with regard to landscape configuration. We next analysed the influence of M. glareolus population dynamics on PUUV spatial distribution. Our results revealed that the global metapopulation dynamics of bank voles were strongly shaped by landscape features, including suitable patch size and connectivity. Large effective size in forest might therefore contribute to the higher observed levels of PUUV prevalence. By contrast, populations from hedge networks highly suffered from genetic drift and appeared strongly isolated from all other populations. This might result in high probabilities of local extinction for both M. glareolus and PUUV. Besides we detected signatures of asymmetric bank vole migration from forests to hedges. These movements were likely to sustain PUUV in fragmented landscapes. In conclusion, our study provided arguments in favour of source-sink dynamics shaping PUUV persistence and spread in heterogeneous, western European temperate landscapes. It illustrated the potential contribution of landscape genetics to the understanding of the epidemiological processes occurring at this local scale.啮齿类宿主的种群动态与扩散，被认为对汉坦病毒（hantavirus）的流行病学至关重要，因其决定了病原体在宿主种群内部及种群之间的存续与传播。本研究利用景观遗传学（landscape genetics）方法，探究普马拉汉坦病毒（Puumala hantavirus, PUUV）的宿主——棕背䶄（Myodes glareolus）的种群动态如何随森林破碎化发生变化，并进而影响PUUV的流行病学特征。我们在法国PUUV流行区阿尔登（Ardennes）区域内采集了棕背䶄的种群样本，并基于景观格局推断了种群规模、遗传隔离与迁移等种群统计特征。随后，我们分析了棕背䶄种群动态对PUUV空间分布的影响。研究结果显示，棕背䶄的全局集合种群（metapopulation）动态受景观特征（包括适宜生境斑块面积与连通性）的强烈调控。因此，森林生境中较大的有效种群规模，可能与观测到的更高PUUV感染率存在关联。相较而言，依托绿篱网络的棕背䶄种群则面临严重的遗传漂变，且与其他所有种群间的遗传隔离程度极高，这或导致棕背䶄与PUUV均面临较高的局域灭绝风险。此外，我们还检测到棕背䶄存在从森林向绿篱的不对称迁移信号，这类迁移活动或有助于PUUV在破碎化景观中持续存续。综上，本研究的结果支持源-汇动态（source-sink dynamics）假说，即该动态塑造了PUUV在西欧异质温带景观中的存续与传播；本研究同时阐明，景观遗传学方法有助于理解该局域尺度下发生的流行病学过程。