Expanded diversity of novel hemoplasmas in rare and undersampled Neotropical bats

Abstract

Hemotropic mycoplasmas are emerging as a model system for studying bacterial pathogens in bats, but taxonomic coverage of sampled host species remains poor. We leveraged a long-term field program in Belize to uncover novel hemoplasma diversity in bats by analyzing samples from species infrequently encountered in typical surveys. PCR targeting the partial 16S rRNA and 23S rRNA genes and subsequent phylogenetic analyses identified two putative novel host shifts of hemoplasmas, four entirely novel hemoplasma genotypes, and the first detections of hemoplasmas in four bat species. Our analyses demonstrate that additional genetic diversity of hemoplasmas in bats can be uncovered by targeting rare or otherwise undersampled host species.