High virulence does not necessarily impede viral adaptation to a new host: a case study using a plant RNA virus.

The results of this study do not lend support to the hypothesis that high virulence impedes microparasites' evolution. Rather, they exemplify that jumps between host species can be game changers for evolutionary dynamics. When considering the evolution of genome architecture, host species jumps might play a very important role, by allowing evolutionary intermediates to be competitive.