Metagenomic study of the viruses of African straw-coloured fruit bats: Detection of a chiropteran poxvirus and isolation of a novel adenovirus

Kate S Baker,Richard M Leggett,Nicholas H Bexfield,Mark Alston,Gordon Daly,Shawn Todd,Mary Tachedjian,Clare E.G Holmes,Sandra Crameri,Lin-Fa Wang,Jonathan L Heeney,Richard Suu-Ire,Paul Kellam,Andrew A Cunningham,James L.N Wood,Mario Caccamo,Pablo R Murcia

doi:10.1016/j.virol.2013.03.014

Abstract

Viral emergence as a result of zoonotic transmission constitutes a continuous public health threat. Emerging viruses such as SARS coronavirus, hantaviruses and henipaviruses have wildlife reservoirs. Characterising the viruses of candidate reservoir species in geographical hot spots for viral emergence is a sensible approach to develop tools to predict, prevent, or contain emergence events. Here, we explore the viruses of Eidolon helvum, an Old World fruit bat species widely distributed in Africa that lives in close proximity to humans. We identified a great abundance and diversity of novel herpes and papillomaviruses, described the isolation of a novel adenovirus, and detected, for the first time, sequences of a chiropteran poxvirus closely related with Molluscum contagiosum. In sum, E. helvum display a wide variety of mammalian viruses, some of them genetically similar to known human pathogens, highlighting the possibility of zoonotic transmission.

Highlights

Viral emergence as a result of zoonotic transmission constitutes a continuous public health threat
The majority of the mammalian viruses identified in those studies were those previously identified in bats and include: Adenoviridae (Li et al, 2010c); Parvoviridae (Li et al, 2010b); Circoviridae (Ge et al, 2011); Coronaviridae (Tang et al, 2006; Woo et al, 2006) and Astroviridae (Chu et al, 2008)
Performance comparison among assemblers Here, we show important performance differences among four different assemblers (Velvet, ABySS, MetaIDBA and MetaCortex) and three sample types

Summary

Introduction

Viral emergence as a result of zoonotic transmission constitutes a continuous public health threat. Emerging viruses such as SARS coronavirus, hantaviruses and henipaviruses have wildlife reservoirs. Characterising the viruses of candidate reservoir species in high-risk geographical areas is an important step toward better understanding viral emergence. Detailed studies of the viruses of insectivorous bat species in both North America and China have been conducted (Donaldson et al, 2010; Ge et al, 2012; Li et al, 2010a; Wu et al, 2012). The species is eaten as bushmeat, and the populations studied have ample opportunities for human contact, including a roost directly over a hospital in Accra, Ghana (Hayman et al, 2012)

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