Anthropogenic factors and social organisation drive picobirnavirus
communities in wild rhesus macaques
Abstract
Biologists are increasingly interested in the ecological and
evolutionary factors that influence microbial communities. Yet compared
to bacterial communities, our understanding of viral community ecology
remains limited. Here, we investigated the factors influencing viral
community composition and structure among wild rhesus macaques (Macaca
mulatta) in human-modified environments in Bangladesh, focusing on
assemblages of picobirnaviruses (PbVs) as a model system. We found that
anthropogenic factors—particularly human and livestock
densities—were the strongest predictors of viral community
composition. Host social structure played a secondary role, shaping
viral communities at the group and site levels. Virus-virus associations
influenced co-occurrence patterns primarily within individual hosts but
their effect became less evident at broader scales. In contrast,
individual host traits (age, sex, and physiological stress) and viral
phylogenetic relationships had minimal effects on viral co-occurrence.
Notably, anthropogenic factors had opposing effects on different PbV
taxa: while some viruses were more prevalent in areas with higher human
and livestock densities, others were less common, possibly due to their
association with wildlife or natural environments. This suggests that
macaques may acquire certain PbVs from anthropogenic sources while
experiencing reduced exposure to others in human-modified landscapes.
Together, these findings reveal the dominant role of environmental and
social factors in shaping viral communities, and highlight the
hierarchical nature of virus community assembly – with different
ecological processes operating at individual, group, and site scales.