Molecular detection and sequence characterization of diverse rhabdoviruses in bats, China

Abstract

The Rhabdoviridae is among the most diverse families of RNA viruses and currently classified into 18 genera with some rhabdoviruses lethal to humans and other animals. Herein, we describe genetic characterization of three novel rhabdoviruses from bats in China. Of these, two viruses (Jinghong bat virus and Benxi bat virus) found in Rhinolophus bats showed a phylogenetic relationship with vesiculoviruses, and sequence analyses indicate that they represent two new species within the genus Vesiculovirus. The remaining Yangjiang bat virus found in Hipposideros larvatus bats were only distantly related to currently known rhabdoviruses.

Novel Viruses in Mosquitoes from Brazilian Pantanal

“…Chacororé flavivirus is a putative novel virus that clusters with classical insect-specific flaviviruses (ISFVs) group of the genus Flavivirus , previously identified in Aedes mosquitoes [34,45,51]. Another virus belonging to the ISFV group identified in our study was Sabethes flavivirus , previously detected in Sabethes belisariori from Ribeirão Claro, Brazil, demonstrating this virus has a broader geographical distribution [36]. ISFVs have been demonstrated to alter vector competence of mosquitoes to arboviruses belonging to flavivirus genus, influencing the transmission of public-health important arboviruses [11,52].…”

“…A genome corresponding to the N (1168 nt), P (290 nt), and L (929 nt) genes of a putative novel rhabdovirus designated Guampa vesiculovirus (Table 1) shared 67% aa identity with Benxi bat virus , a Vesiculovirus isolated from Rhinolophus ferrumequinum in China [36]. This virus contains two domains: the RdRp (Mononeg_RNA_pol) with 138 aa and the nucleocapsid (Rhadbo_ncap) with 244 aa.…”

Characterization of Novel Rhabdoviruses in Chinese Bats

“…These results, strongly supported by bootstrap values, confirm the preliminary classification based on BLAST analysis. Interestingly, all the new Chinese bat vesiculoviruses clustered with other vesiculoviruses previously found in bats, with American bat vesiculovirus (ABV) from North America [ 30 ] and the recently described Jinghong bat virus (JHBV) originating from the same bat species ( Rhinolophus affinis ) in Yunnan province, China [ 29 ]. Within this cluster, the four isolates 1017, D170001, D170022, and D170190 formed a monophyletic group and were considered as a single putative new rhabdovirus species, tentatively named Yinshui bat virus (YSBV) ( Figure 3 ).…”

“…Apart from lyssaviruses, rhabdoviruses of two other genera have been found in bats, with Vesiculovirus and Ledantevirus . Within the genus Ledantevirus , two bat-associated members have been reported in America [ 28 ] and China [ 29 ], and several different ledanteviruses species have been previously reported in Africa [ 30 , 31 ] and Europe [ 32 ]. As for all rhabdoviruses, these bat-related rhabdoviruses are typically enveloped virions with bullet-shaped or bacilliform morphology, and are reported to be in the range of 100–460 nm in length and 45–100 nm in diameter.…”

“…To date, two lyssaviruses isolated in Jilin and Taiwan have been reported [ 46 , 47 ], and rabies virus seroprevalence studies in bats have been conducted in the South of China [ 48 ]. Within the genus Vesiculovirus , only one bat-associated virus has been reported in Yunnan in 2017 [ 29 ]. No other data are available regarding the circulation of virus members belonging to the genus Ledantevirus or to other genera.…”