A mammalian fibroblast zoo reveals barriers to cross-species virus replication and differential regulation of antiviral immunity

A primary fibroblast library spanning 86 mammalian species maps arbovirus susceptibility and shows that innate immune control versus host-factor incompatibility varies by virus-host pair.

• Why it matters: Understanding which mammal lineages resist or permit virus replication is limited by narrow model systems, despite ongoing zoonosis risk from diverse mammal hosts.
• What they did: The study built an atlas using primary fibroblasts from 86 species and tested a panel of arboviruses, then used innate immune perturbation plus poly(I:C) and type I interferon with transcriptomic profiling.
• The result: Virus-sensing responses include a conserved core gene set and substantial species- and order-specific programs, enabling comparative insight into how antiviral immunity evolved across mammals.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.