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Highly diverse population of Picornaviridae and other members of the Picornavirales, in Cameroonian fruit bats.

ABSTRACT: The order Picornavirales represents a diverse group of positive-stranded RNA viruses with small non-enveloped icosahedral virions. Recently, bats have been identified as an important reservoir of several highly pathogenic human viruses. Since many members of the Picornaviridae family cause a wide range of diseases in humans and animals, this study aimed to characterize members of the order Picornavirales in fruit bat populations located in the Southwest region of Cameroon. These bat populations are frequently in close contact with humans due to hunting, selling and eating practices, which provides ample opportunity for interspecies transmissions.Fecal samples from 87 fruit bats (Eidolon helvum and Epomophorus gambianus), were combined into 25 pools and analyzed using viral metagenomics. In total, Picornavirales reads were found in 19 pools, and (near) complete genomes of 11 picorna-like viruses were obtained from 7 of these pools. The picorna-like viruses possessed varied genomic organizations (monocistronic or dicistronic), and arrangements of gene cassettes. Some of the viruses belonged to established families, including the Picornaviridae, whereas others clustered distantly from known viruses and most likely represent novel genera and families. Phylogenetic and nucleotide composition analyses suggested that mammals were the likely host species of bat sapelovirus, bat kunsagivirus and bat crohivirus, whereas the remaining viruses (named bat iflavirus, bat posalivirus, bat fisalivirus, bat cripavirus, bat felisavirus, bat dicibavirus and bat badiciviruses 1 and 2) were most likely diet-derived.The existence of a vast genetic variability of picorna-like viruses in fruit bats may increase the probability of spillover infections to humans especially when humans and bats have direct contact as the case in this study site. However, further screening for these viruses in humans will fully indicate their zoonotic potential.

SUBMITTER: Yinda CK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5364608 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Highly diverse population of Picornaviridae and other members of the Picornavirales, in Cameroonian fruit bats.

Yinda Claude Kwe CK Zell Roland R Deboutte Ward W Zeller Mark M Conceição-Neto Nádia N Heylen Elisabeth E Maes Piet P Knowles Nick J NJ Ghogomu Stephen Mbigha SM Van Ranst Marc M Matthijnssens Jelle J

BMC genomics 20170323 1

<h4>Background</h4>The order Picornavirales represents a diverse group of positive-stranded RNA viruses with small non-enveloped icosahedral virions. Recently, bats have been identified as an important reservoir of several highly pathogenic human viruses. Since many members of the Picornaviridae family cause a wide range of diseases in humans and animals, this study aimed to characterize members of the order Picornavirales in fruit bat populations located in the Southwest region of Cameroon. The ...[more]

PMID: 28335731

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Project description:Isolated islands provide valuable opportunities to study the persistence of viruses in wildlife populations, including population size thresholds such as the critical community size. The straw-coloured fruit bat, Eidolon helvum, has been identified as a reservoir for henipaviruses (serological evidence) and Lagos bat virus (LBV; virus isolation and serological evidence) in continental Africa. Here, we sampled from a remote population of E. helvum annobonensis fruit bats on Annobón island in the Gulf of Guinea to investigate whether antibodies to these viruses also exist in this isolated subspecies. Henipavirus serological analyses (Luminex multiplexed binding and inhibition assays, virus neutralisation tests and western blots) and lyssavirus serological analyses (LBV: modified Fluorescent Antibody Virus Neutralisation test, LBV and Mokola virus: lentivirus pseudovirus neutralisation assay) were undertaken on 73 and 70 samples respectively. Given the isolation of fruit bats on Annobón and their lack of connectivity with other populations, it was expected that the population size on the island would be too small to allow persistence of viruses that are thought to cause acute and immunising infections. However, the presence of antibodies against henipaviruses was detected using the Luminex binding assay and confirmed using alternative assays. Neutralising antibodies to LBV were detected in one bat using both assays. We demonstrate clear evidence for exposure of multiple individuals to henipaviruses in this remote population of E. helvum annobonensis fruit bats on Annobón island. The situation is less clear for LBV. Seroprevalences to henipaviruses and LBV in Annobón are notably different to those in E. helvum in continental locations studied using the same sampling techniques and assays. Whilst cross-sectional serological studies in wildlife populations cannot provide details on viral dynamics within populations, valuable information on the presence or absence of viruses may be obtained and utilised for informing future studies.

Dataset Information

Highly diverse population of Picornaviridae and other members of the Picornavirales, in Cameroonian fruit bats.

Publications

Highly diverse population of Picornaviridae and other members of the Picornavirales, in Cameroonian fruit bats.

Similar Datasets

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