Amphotropism can be most effectively described in comparison to ecotropic and pantropic pathogens.
Amphotropic pathogens are able to affect a relatively wide range of species by having their envelope glycoproteins attack receptors that, due to evolutionary conservation, are structurally similar across species.
[1] By exploiting these similarities they are able to extend their range beyond typical ecotropic pathogens, which are only able to identify and attack a specific receptor.
However, their range is not as wide as pantropic pathogens, which aren’t reliant on structural similarities to bind.
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