Discovery of novel virus sequences in an isolated and threatened bat species, the New Zealand lesser short-tailed bat (Mystacina tuberculata)

Abstract

Bats harbour a diverse array of viruses, including significant human pathogens. Extensive metagenomic studies of material from bats, in particular guano, have revealed a large number of novel or divergent viral taxa that were previously unknown. New Zealand has only two extant indigenous terrestrial mammals, which are both bats, Mystacina tuberculata (the lesser short-tailed bat) and Chalinolobus tuberculatus (the long-tailed bat). Until the human introduction of exotic mammals, these species had been isolated from all other terrestrial mammals for over 1 million years (potentially over 16 million years for M. tuberculata). Four bat guano samples were collected from M. tuberculata roosts on the isolated offshore island of Whenua hou (Codfish Island) in New Zealand. Metagenomic analysis revealed that this species still hosts a plethora of divergent viruses. Whilst the majority of viruses detected were likely to be of dietary origin, some putative vertebrate virus sequences were identified. Papillomavirus, polyomavirus, calicivirus and hepevirus were found in the metagenomic data and subsequently confirmed using independent PCR assays and sequencing. The new hepevirus and calicivirus sequences may represent new genera within these viral families. Our findings may provide an insight into the origins of viral families, given their detection in an isolated host species.

Detection of adenovirus, papillomavirus and parvovirus in Brazilian bats of the species Artibeus lituratus and Sturnira lilium

“…The diversity of viral contigs was lower than previously described in other bat species [25,26,42]. As it is unlikely that viral diversity differs greatly among different species of bats, we believe that environmental features, such as different feeding habits, geographical location, and contact with other species of bats [26,[42][43][44], might have contributed to these different results. In addition, the nucleic acid extraction and enrichment techniques may have also influenced the results.…”

Viruses in bats and potential spillover to animals and humans

“…These bats were shown to harbor divergent viruses, including members of the families Astroviridae, Circoviruidae, Parvoviridae, Partitviridae, Coronaviridae, Picobirnavirdae, Adenoviridae, Herpesviridae, Papillomaviridae, Phenuiviridae, and Picornaviridae [98,99]. These recent studies build upon previous work [100][101][102][103] to further expand the diversity of the bat virome. Uniquely, the picobirnaviruses identified utilize an alternative genetic code [98].…”

Diverse Array of New Viral Sequences Identified in Worldwide Populations of the Asian Citrus Psyllid (Diaphorina citri) Using Viral Metagenomics

“…The goal of the current study was to examine populations of D. citri from both native areas (China and Taiwan) and those where D. citri has more recently emerged (United States and Brazil) through high-throughput NGS of small RNAs and transcriptomes in an attempt to discover putative viruses associated with D. citri. Such metagenomic approaches with similar goals have been successfully implemented to discover highly diverse and novel viruses from field-collected mosquito, bat, and Drosophila fly samples (25,47,60,(92)(93)(94). A desirable translational outcome of this work would be to identify D. citri-infecting viruses which might have the potential to be used as biological agents to control D. citri and slow the spread of HLB.…”