Comparison of viral communities in the blood, feces and various tissues of wild brown rats (Rattus norvegicus)
Zi Zhuang,
Lingling Qian,
Juan Lu,
Xiaodan Zhang,
Asif Mahmood,
Lei Cui,
Huiying Wang,
Xiaochun Wang,
Shixing Yang,
Likai Ji,
Tongling Shan,
Quan Shen,
Wen Zhang
Affiliations
Zi Zhuang
Department of Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China
Lingling Qian
Department of Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China
Juan Lu
Department of Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China
Xiaodan Zhang
Department of Clinical Laboratory, Zhenjiang Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Zhenjiang, 212002, China
Asif Mahmood
Department of Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China
Lei Cui
Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, 200062, China
Huiying Wang
Department of Swine Infectious Disease, Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, 200241, China
Xiaochun Wang
Department of Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China
Shixing Yang
Department of Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China
Likai Ji
Department of Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China
Tongling Shan
Department of Swine Infectious Disease, Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, 200241, China; Corresponding author.
Quan Shen
Department of Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China; Corresponding author.
Wen Zhang
Department of Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China; Corresponding author. Jiangsu University, China.
Viral diseases caused by new outbreaks of viral infections pose a serious threat to human health. Wild brown rats (Rattus norvegicus), considered one of the world's largest and most widely distributed rodents, are host to various zoonotic pathogens. To further understand the composition of the virus community in wild brown rats and explore new types of potentially pathogenic viruses, viral metagenomics was conducted to investigate blood, feces, and various tissues of wild brown rats captured from Zhenjiang, China. Results indicated that the composition of the virus community in different samples showed significant differences. In blood and tissue samples, members of the Parvoviridae and Anelloviridae form the main body of the virus community. Picornaviridae, Picobirnaviridae, and Astroviridae made up a large proportion of fecal samples. Several novel genome sequences from members of different families, including Anelloviridae, Parvoviridae, and CRESS DNA viruses, were detected in both blood and other samples, suggesting that they have the potential to spread across organs to cause viremia. These viruses included not only strains closely related to human viruses, but also a potential recombinant virus. Multiple dual-segment picornaviruses were obtained from fecal samples, as well as virus sequences from the Astroviridae and Picornaviridae. Phylogenetic analysis showed that these viruses belonged to different genera, with multiple viruses clustered with other animal viruses. Whether they have pathogenicity and the ability to spread across species needs further study.
