Bats are potential natural hosts of Encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV). Bats appear to have some unique features in their innate immune system that inhibit viral replication causing limited clinical symptoms, and thus, contributing to the virus spill over to humans. Here, kidney epithelial cell lines derived from four bat species (Pteropus dasymallus, Rousettus leschenaultii, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, and Miniopterus fuliginosus) and two non-bat species (Homo sapiens and Mesocricetus auratus) were infected with EMCV and JEV. The replication of EMCV and JEV was lower in the bat cell lines derived from R. leschenaultii, R. ferrumequinum, and M. fuliginosus with a higher expression level of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) (TLR3, RIG-I, and MDA5) and interferon-beta (IFN-b) than that in the non-bat cell lines and a bat cell line derived from P. dasymallus. The knockdown of TLR3, RIG-I, and MDA5 in Rhinolophus bat cell line using antisense RNA oligonucleotide led to decrease IFN-b expression and increased viral replication. These results suggest that TLR3, RIG-I, and MDA5 are important for antiviral response against EMCV and JEV in Rhinolophus bats.

Acerodon jubatus (the Golden-Crowned flying fox) is an endemic species in the Philippines, which was suspected to be a host of the Reston strain of the Ebola virus. As nocturnal animals, the flying foxes spend daytime at the roosting site, which they use for self-maintenance and reproduction. To understand the variation in diurnal behavior and time allocation for various activities in the Golden-Crowned flying fox, we investigated their daytime behavior and activity budget using instantaneous scan sampling and all occurrence focal sampling. Data collection was performed from 07:00 to 18:00 hr during January 8–17, 2017. The most frequent activity was sleeping (76.3%). The remaining activities were wing flapping (5.0%), self-grooming (4.2%), hanging relaxation (3.4%), wing spread (2.9%), movement (2.4%), mating/courtship (2.4%), aggression (1.9%), hanging alert (1.2%), excretion (0.1%) and scent marks (0.05%). The frequency of sleeping, wing flapping, self-grooming, hanging relaxation, aggression, mating/courtship and movement behaviors changed with the time of the day. Females allocated more time for resting than males, while males spent more time on the activities that helped enhance their mating opportunities, for example, movement, sexual activity and territorial behavior.

The nerves that innervate the fingertips and wing membrane from the upper arm of the bent-winged bat Miniopterus fuliginosus were examined under a stereomicroscope. The radial, median, ulnar and musculocutaneous nerves were formed by the brachial plexus, which ran to the wing membrane. The two suspected axillary nerves ran to the wing membrane. The radial nerve ran to the end of the first digit, while the median nerve ran along the forearm and subsequently branched-off to run along the second to fifth digits up to the end of the phalanges. The ulnar nerve ran to the plagiopatagium on the extensor side of the elbow joint. Finally, the musculocutaneous nerve passed through the ventral side of the humerus and branched out at the elbow joint to run radially to the propatagium area. In this study, the visible nerves that were distributed from the upper arm to the fingertips of Miniopterus fuliginosus were formed by C6-T1.

No abstract

24Adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP), the major energy currency of the cell, is involved in 25 many cellular processes, including the viral life cycle, and can be used as an indicator of early 26 signs of cytopathic effect (CPE). In this study, we demonstrated that CPE can be analyzed using 27 an FRET-based ATP probe named ATP indicator based on Epsilon subunit for Analytical 28Measurements (ATeam). The results revealed that as early as 3 hr, the virus infected cells showed 29 a significantly different Venus/cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) ratio compared to the mock-infected 30 cells. The ATeam technology is therefore useful to determine the early signs of ATP-based CPE 31 as early as 3 hr without morphology-based CPE by light microscopy, and enables high throughput 32determination of the presence of microorganisms in neglected samples stored in laboratories. 33 34