11. Discussion
From the panorama of hantaviruses depicted above, hantaviruses circulate in various mammals (e.g., bats, rodents, shrews, and moles), amphibians, and fish widely in the world, and some hantaviruses are highly pathogenic to humans. They usually infect humans through animal-to-human transmission. In recent years, the taxonomy of Hantaviridae has been greatly expanded and revised, and research targeting various aspects of this important virus family has made significant progress.
In the years to come, numerous research advances in Hantaviridaecan be anticipated. Novel genera or species within this family will be discovered, particularly from novel regions or host species. For instance, the suspected novel hantaviruses Rusne virus from the root vole in Lithuania and Academ virus from moles in Russia were reported recently.99,100 Some genomic segments of important known hantaviruses (e.g., Lena virus and El Moro Canyon virus ) will be sequenced and analyzed. The structures and functions of more proteins of hantaviruses will be revealed. More evolutionary and ecological features of hantaviruses, including the roles of pigs and mites, in hantavirus transmission, will be further explored, and the phylogenetic distribution and pathogenesis of more hantaviruses will be clarified. More vaccines (e.g., mRNA vaccines) and other measures to control highly pathogenic hantaviruses will be evaluated. The panorama of hantaviruses depicted in this review can be a valuable reference for these explorations.