A Preliminary Study of the Virome of the South American Free-Tailed Bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) and Identification of Two Novel Mammalian Viruses.

Elisa M Bolatti,María E Montani,Pablo E Casal,Gastón Viarengo,Lea Hošnjak,Mario Poljak,Adriana A Giri,Rubén M Barquez,Diego Chouhy,Tomaž M Zorec

doi:10.3390/v12040422

Abstract

Bats provide important ecosystem services as pollinators, seed dispersers, and/or insect controllers, but they have also been found harboring different viruses with zoonotic potential. Virome studies in bats distributed in Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America have increased dramatically over the past decade, whereas information on viruses infecting South American species is scarce. We explored the virome of Tadarida brasiliensis, an insectivorous New World bat species inhabiting a maternity colony in Rosario (Argentina), by a metagenomic approach. The analysis of five pooled oral/anal swab samples indicated the presence of 43 different taxonomic viral families infecting a wide range of hosts. By conventional nucleic acid detection techniques and/or bioinformatics approaches, the genomes of two novel viruses were completely covered clustering into the Papillomaviridae (Tadarida brasiliensis papillomavirus type 1, TbraPV1) and Genomoviridae (Tadarida brasiliensis gemykibivirus 1, TbGkyV1) families. TbraPV1 is the first papillomavirus type identified in this host and the prototype of a novel genus. TbGkyV1 is the first genomovirus reported in New World bats and constitutes a new species within the genus Gemykibivirus. Our findings extend the knowledge about oral/anal viromes of a South American bat species and contribute to understand the evolution and genetic diversity of the novel characterized viruses.

Highlights

Bats belong to the order Chiroptera, which is the second-largest mammalian group, comprising21 families and 1411 species distributed globally, with the exception of polar areas [1,2]
In this study we report a detailed description of two novel complete genome sequences, one describing a new papillomavirus genus and the other representing a novel variant of an existing gemykibivirus species
6,738,566 read pairs were removed during the laboratory-batch background screen and an additional 878,852 read pairs were identified as originating from bacteria

Summary

Introduction

Bats belong to the order Chiroptera, which is the second-largest mammalian group, comprising21 families and 1411 species distributed globally, with the exception of polar areas [1,2]. Certain specific aspects of bats—including their relatively long lifespan in relation to their body size [4], the reliance of some species on prolonged torpor [5], and flight—may make them suitable for hosting a wide variety of viruses [6], including zoonotic viruses highly pathogenic to humans [6], such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-related coronavirus, Ebola virus, Nipah virus, and Hendra virus [7,8,9,10]. The gregarious behavior of many bat species, such as free-tailed bats Tadarida brasiliensis Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1824), may facilitate rapid transmission of pathogens between bats and other species [6]. T. brasiliensis is the most abundant migratory and cosmopolitan species of the New World bats, widespread throughout the Americas [11,12,13] and protected by international agreements [14]

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