Bats are reservoir animals harboring many important pathogenic viruses and with the capability of transmitting these to humans and other animals. To establish an effective surveillance to monitor transboundary spread of bat viruses between Myanmar and China, complete organs from the thorax and abdomen from 853 bats of six species from two Myanmar counties close to Yunnan province, China, were collected and tested for their virome through metagenomics by Solexa sequencing and bioinformatic analysis. In total, 3,742,314 reads of 114 bases were generated, and over 86% were assembled into 1,649,512 contigs with an average length of 114 bp, of which 26,698 (2%) contigs were recognizable viral sequences belonging to 24 viral families. Of the viral contigs 45% (12,086/26,698) were related to vertebrate viruses, 28% (7,443/26,698) to insect viruses, 27% (7,074/26,698) to phages and 95 contigs to plant viruses. The metagenomic results were confirmed by PCR of selected viruses in all bat samples followed by phylogenetic analysis, which has led to the discovery of some novel bat viruses of the genera Mamastrovirus, Bocavirus, Circovirus, Iflavirus and Orthohepadnavirus and to their prevalence rates in two bat species. In conclusion, the present study aims to present the bat virome in Myanmar, and the results obtained further expand the spectrum of viruses harbored by bats.

Although many severe acute respiratory syndrome-like coronaviruses (SARS-like CoVs) have been identified in bats inC oronaviruses (CoVs) in the subfamily Coronavirinae are important pathogens of mammalian and avian animals and currently compose four genera: Alphacoronavirus, Betacoronavirus, Gammacoronavirus, and Deltacoronavirus (1). Members of Alphacoronavirus and Betacoronavirus are found exclusively in mammals, e.g., human CoV 229E, NL63, and OC43, and cause human respiratory diseases (2). A CoV is also the causative agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the first global human pandemic disease of the 21st century, which spread to 30 countries in five continents, resulting in Ͼ8,000 human cases with 774 deaths (3, 4). SARS CoV is a member of the Betacoronavirus genus and is largely distinct from previously known human CoVs OC43 and 229E (5-7). To identify the transmission source of SARS, largescale animal screening was implemented in May 2003, and several strains of SARS CoVs were isolated from nasal and/or fecal swabs of six masked palm civets (Paguma larvata) and one raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) collected from a wet market in Shenzhen retailing wild animals for exotic foods (8). Their full genome sequences were 99.8% identical to that of human SARS CoV, and therefore civets were deemed to be an animal reservoir of this virus (8). Further serological studies over a larger area revealed that only civets in the market were SARS seropositive, while farmed civets were seronegative, indicating that civets likely became infected from an unknown source in wet markets, not in the farming environment (9). Moreover, a comprehensive analysis of cross-host

Bats are considered important animal reservoirs for many viruses pathogenic to humans. An approach based on viral metagenomics was used to study gut specimens from 78 insectivorous bats in Yunnan Province, China. Seventy-four reads were found to be related to group A rotavirus (RVA). Further reverse transcription-PCR screening and viral isolation on cell cultures confirmed the presence of a novel RVA strain, named RVA/Bat-tc/MSLH14/2012/G3P[3], in 1 (6%) of 16 lesser horseshoe bats. Full genomic sequencing analyses showed that MSLH14 possessed the genotype constellation G3-P[3]-I8-R3-C3-M3-A9-N3-T3-E3-H6, which is akin to human and animal rotaviruses believed to be of feline/canine origin. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that VP7 was most closely related to bovine RVA strains from India, whereas VP4 was most closely related to an unusual human RVA strain, CMH222, with animal characteristics isolated in Thailand. The remaining gene segments were only distantly related to a range of animal RVA strains, most of which are believed to be related to feline/canine RVAs. Experimental infection showed that bat RVA strain MSLH14 was highly pathogenic to suckling mice, causing 100% mortality when they were inoculated orally with a titer as low as 5 ؋ 10 2 50% tissue culture infective doses. As this virus is not closely related to any known RVA strain, it is tempting to speculate that it is a true bat RVA strain rather than a virus transmitted between species. However, further screening of bat populations, preferably juvenile animals, will be crucial in determining whether or not this virus is widely distributed in the bat population.

Viral infections usually result in alterations in the host cell proteome which determine the fate of the infected cells and the progress of pathogenesis. To uncover cellular protein responses in classical swine fever virus-infected PK-15 cells, a proteomic analysis was conducted using 2D PAGE followed by MALDI-TOF-MS/MS identification. Altered expression of 35 protein spots in infected cells at 48 h p.i. were identified in 2D gels, with 21 of these being characterized by MALDI-TOF-MS/MS, including 16 upregulated proteins and 5 down-regulated proteins. Western-blot analysis confirmed the up-regulation of annexin 2 and down-regulation of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH). The altered proteins could be sorted into 7 groups according to cellular function: cytoskeleton, energy metabolism, replication/transcription and translation processes, protein processing, antioxidative stress proteins, heat shock proteins and signal transduction. The altered expression of these proteins provides a response profile of PK-15 host cells to CSFV infection. Further study of these altered proteins may facilitate understanding the mechanisms of CSFV infection and pathogenesis.