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

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.

The Application of The Skin Virome for Human Identification

“…The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted September 11, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.10.459834 doi: bioRxiv preprint 26 have previously been identified from human vaginal samples, very few studies have explored these small single stranded DNA viruses and their diversity and stable presence as a part of the human skin core virome [61]. However, previous studies have identified Genomoviridae as being a stable and persistent virus in other mammals such as that of bats [62].…”

Viral Metagenomic Data Analyses of Five New World Bat Species from Argentina: Identification of 35 Novel DNA Viruses

“…A total of 98.4% (124/126) of South American bat viruses belong to the family Rhabdoviridae (RNA viruses) and were identified by conventional molecular methods, mainly in arthropodophagous bat species during national rabies surveillance programs [8][9][10]. To date, only two DNA viruses have been identified in bats from Argentina, Tadarida brasiliensis papillomavirus type 1 (TbraPV1, Papillomaviridae) and Tadarida brasiliensis gemykibivirus 1 (Genomoviridae) [11].…”

“…Using NGS, we recently described the oral/anal virome composition of Tadarida brasiliensis (I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1824), an arthropodophagous bat species widely dispersed across the Americas [11]. To expand the virome composition of T. brasiliensis from other transmission routes and to strengthen current knowledge about viral diversity in other New World bats (Molossus (Pallas, 1766), Eumops bonariensis (Peters, 1874), Eumops patagonicus (Thomas, 1924), and Eptesicus diminutus (Osgood, 1915)), this study applied a metagenomic approach to fecal samples of five bat species from Argentina.…”

The Influence of Habitat on Viral Diversity in Neotropical Rodent Hosts

“…This implies that high viral diversity is expected from the region and thus a high number of potential zoonotic viruses [ 39 , 40 ]. Despite this context, Amazonia remains one of the least explored areas in terms of viral diversity, and to date, the few studies investigating the viral diversity of the main reservoir species have only been conducted with bats [ 8 , 41 , 42 ]. In French Guiana, 36 rodent species are present, and live in different habitats (various types of forest, savannah, agricultural areas, peri-urban zones, and urban zones).…”