Most emerging pathogens of humans can infect multiple host species (Woolhouse & Gowtage‐Sequeria, 2005). This simple fact has motivated multiple large‐scale, comparative analyses of the drivers of pathogen sharing and zoonotic pathogen richness among hosts as well as the factors determining the zoonotic potential of pathogens themselves. However, most of this work focuses on viruses, limiting a broader understanding of how host range varies within and between pathogen groups. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Shaw et al. (2020) compile a comprehensive data set of host–pathogen associations across viruses and bacteria and test whether previous patterns observed in the former occur in the latter. They find most viruses and bacteria are specialists, and viruses are more likely to be generalists; however, generalist bacteria encompass multiple host orders, whereas viral sharing occurs more within host orders. Lastly, the authors demonstrate that many factors previously identified as predictors of zoonotic richness for viruses occur for bacteria and that host phylogenetic similarity is a primary determinant of cross‐species transmission. However, pathogen sharing with humans was more common and more weakly related to phylogenetic distance to Homo sapiens for bacteria compared to viruses, suggesting the former could pose greater spillover risks across host orders. This work represents a key advance in our understanding of host specificity and pathogen sharing beyond viruses.

中文翻译：

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扩展宿主特异性和病原体共享范围，超越病毒。

人类大多数新出现的病原体可以感染多种宿主物种（Woolhouse＆Gowtage-Sequeria，2005）。这个简单的事实激发了对宿主之间病原体共享和人畜共患病致病菌丰富性的驱动因素以及确定病原体自身人畜共患病潜力的因素进行了多个大规模的比较分析。但是，大部分工作都集中在病毒上，这限制了对病原体组内和病原体组之间宿主范围变化的广泛了解。在本期《分子生态学》中，Shaw等。（2020年）汇编了跨病毒和细菌的宿主-病原体关联的综合数据集，并测试了在前者中观察到的先前模式是否在后者中发生。他们发现大多数病毒和细菌都是专家，而病毒更可能是通才。但是，通才细菌包含多个宿主命令，而病毒共享更多地在宿主命令中发生。最后，作者证明了许多先前被确定为病毒人畜共患病程度预测因子的因素是细菌发生的，并且宿主的系统发育相似性是跨物种传播的主要决定因素。但是，与人类致病菌共享更常见，更弱相关的系统发育距离智人对于细菌而言，与病毒相比，这表明前者可能对宿主订单造成更大的溢出风险。这项工作代表了我们对宿主特异性和除病毒之外的病原体共享的理解的关键进展。