Virome characterization and identification of a putative parvovirus and poxvirus in bat ectoparasites of Yunnan Province, China
Alexander Tendu,
Yakhouba Kane,
Ruiya Li,
Victor Omondi,
Xing Chen,
Yanhua Chen,
Emilio Mastriani,
Jiaming Lan,
Alice Catherine Hughes,
Nicolas Berthet,
Gary Wong
Affiliations
Alexander Tendu
Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers Research Unit, CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Immunology, Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Yakhouba Kane
Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers Research Unit, CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Immunology, Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Ruiya Li
Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers Research Unit, CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Immunology, Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Victor Omondi
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Centre for Microbes, Development, and Health, Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Unit of Discovery and Molecular Characterization of Pathogens, CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Immunology, Shanghai, China
Xing Chen
School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; Landscape Ecology Group, Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan, China
Yanhua Chen
Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers Research Unit, CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Immunology, Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China; Landscape Ecology Group, Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan, China
Emilio Mastriani
Centre for Microbes, Development, and Health, Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Unit of Discovery and Molecular Characterization of Pathogens, CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Immunology, Shanghai, China
Jiaming Lan
Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers Research Unit, CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Immunology, Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Alice Catherine Hughes
Landscape Ecology Group, Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan, China; School of Biological Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Nicolas Berthet
Centre for Microbes, Development, and Health, Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Unit of Discovery and Molecular Characterization of Pathogens, CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Immunology, Shanghai, China; Institut Pasteur, Université Paris-Cité, Unité Environnement et Risque Infectieux, Cellule d'Intervention Biologique d'Urgence, Paris, France; Institut Pasteur - épidémiologie et physiopathologie des virus oncogenes, 25-28 Rue du Docteur Roux, 75724 Paris Cedex, France; Corresponding authors at: Shanghai Institute of Immunity and Infection - Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
Gary Wong
Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers Research Unit, CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Immunology, Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China; Corresponding authors at: Shanghai Institute of Immunity and Infection - Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
Ectoparasites found on bats are known to contain important microbes. However, the viruses hosted by these obligate parasites are understudied. This has led to the near oversight of the potential role of these ectoparasites in virus maintenance and transmission from bats to other interacting species and the environment. Here, we sampled bat ectoparasites parasitizing a diverse selection of bat species in the families Rhinolophidae, Vespertilionidae, Megadermatidae, Hipposideridae and Pteropodidae in Yunnan Province, China. We show that the ectoparasite prevalence was generally higher in male compared to female bats. Most ectoparasites were found to fall within the Nycteribiidae, Spinturnicidae and Streblidae bat ectoparasite families. We subsequently applied a non-biased sequencing of libraries prepared from the pooled ectoparasites, followed by an in-silico virus-centric analysis of the resultant reads. We show that ectoparasites hosted by the sampled families of bats are found to carry, in addition to a diverse set of phages, vertebrate and insect viruses in the families Aliusviridae, Ascoviridae, Chuviridae, Circoviridae, Flaviviridae, Hepadnaviridae, Hepeviridae, Herpesviridae, Iridoviridae, Marseilleviridae, Nairoviridae, Orthomyxoviridae, Parvoviridae, Poxviridae, Reoviridae, Retroviridae, and Rhabdoviridae. We further report a partial Parvovirus VP1/VP2 gene and partial Poxvirus ubiquitin-like gene predicted by two independent next generation sequencing data analysis pipelines. This study describes the natural virome of bat ectoparasites, providing a platform for understanding the role these ectoparasites play in the maintenance and spread of viruses to other animals.
