My first PhD student defended today, and honestly, it was the best. Truly nothing feels better than getting to watch trainees mature into independent scientists.

by the host they are circulating in. This evolutionary flexibility could be one reason why these viruses are so good at host switching. We also show that in its reservoir H3 evolution is marked by high reassortment rates that rapidly turn over lineages, with little selection. And swine are weird!

than non-reassortants, suggesting a potential fitness advantage. We also find host-specific differences in segment reassortment patterns, although we don't know why that is. Overall, these data suggest that the roles of mutation and reassortment in driving H3Nx evolution is fundamentally shaped

In mammal hosts, we see the opposite: lower reassortment rates, but higher rates of selection. Swine viruses are unique in that they harbor high reassortment and selection, supporting their potential to generate new diversity. In swine, reassortant viruses are also more likely to persist

reservoir host (birds) and in each spillover host (dogs, horses, humans, swine). In birds, we find barely any selection, but tons of reassortment. Reassortant lineages are short-lived on average, turn over frequently, and operate especially to bring in new NA subtypes.

of H3Nx viruses from these species, and then developed a pipeline to quantify reassortment in technical replicate, allowing us to quantify patterns of selection and reassortment with statistical uncertainty. We could then measure how selection and reassortment rates and patterns operate in the

Understanding host switching is a challenging problem, in part because natural instances of host jumps are rare. H3Nx viruses are a unique group of influenza viruses that circulate in wild birds, but have established long-term lineages in horses, dogs, pigs, and humans. Maria curated a huge dataset

Our lab just put out a new preprint! Led by Maria Maltepes, we've been working with @tavisanderson.bsky.social and @alexey-markin.bsky.social to understand how host species impacts the fundamentals of how influenza viruses evolve. TLDR, reassortment and selection rates vary widely across species.