The virome of the white-winged vampire bat Diaemus youngi is rich in circular DNA viruses

Abstract

In the Neotropical region, the white-winged vampire bat ( Diaemus youngi ) is the rarest of the three species of vampire bats. This bat species feeds preferentially on bird blood, and there is limited information on the viruses infecting D. youngi . Hence, this study aimed to expand the knowledge about the viral diversity associated with D. youngi by sampling and pooling the lungs, liver, kidneys, heart, and intestines of all animals using high-throughput sequencing (HTS) on the Illumina MiSeq platform. A total of three complete and 10 nearly complete circular virus genomes were closely related to gemykrogvirus ( Genomoviridae family), smacovirus ( Smacoviridae family), and torque teno viruses (TTVs) ( Anelloviridae family). In addition, three sequences of bat paramyxovirus were detected and found to be closely related to viruses reported in Pomona roundleaf bats and rodents. The present study provides a snapshot of the viral diversity associated with white-winged vampire bats and provides a baseline for comparison to viruses detected in future outbreaks. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11262-022-01897-6.

Corona- and Paramyxoviruses in Bats from Brazil: A Matter of Concern?

“…Considering that Brazil is biologically rich, containing one of the most diverse continental biotas [ 18 ], a significant number of novel virus genetics related to human pathogens could be identified in the near future, particularly in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest biomes [ 4 , 35 , 38 , 39 , 42 , 45 ]. These works performed with Brazilian bats are still incipient, assessing mainly phyllostomid, molossid and vespertilionid bats in the South, Southeast and North territories [ 35 , 36 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 43 , 54 , 55 , 56 ]. Progress in molecular methods is necessary to enable not just the identification of the host species for coronaviruses but also the elucidation of the mechanisms through which bats either facilitate or impede the replication of these viruses [ 9 ].…”

“…There is strong evidence of bats being in a close evolutionary and ecological relationship with several genera of mammalian PMVs [ 16 ]. The works that have evaluated PMV presence in Brazilian bats have mainly found sequences classified in the Jeilongvirus and Morbillivirus genera [ 16 , 45 , 53 , 54 , 55 ]. Morbillivirus detection is always a main concern because some members of this PMV genus such as measles virus, canine distemper virus and rinderpest virus cause severe disease in their natural hosts [ 49 , 50 , 59 , 60 ].…”

“…Recently, the PMVs classified into the Jeilongvirus genus have emerged from an extensive range of small mammals, including bats [ 16 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 ]. This genus was discovered in 1977 in a kidney autoculture of a dead house mouse, Mus musculus , in Northern Queensland, Australia [ 57 ].…”

“…Bat PMV surveillance performed in Brazil has been mainly performed in the Amazonian, Atlantic Forest and Cerrado biomes [ 16 , 45 , 54 , 55 , 56 ]. Jeilongvirus and the putative Jeilongvirus-related genus were the most common PMVs detected in Brazilian bats, which included Corollia perspicillata [ 16 , 54 , 56 ], Corollia brevicauda [ 16 ], Desmodus rotundus [ 16 , 55 ], Glossophaga soricina [ 16 ] and Diameus youngi [ 54 , 55 ] species from the Phyllostomidae family versus one report in a Tadarida braziliensis molossid bat [ 45 ]. The Morbillivirus genus was also detected in the Phylostomidae family, including Desmodus rotundus [ 16 ] and Phyllostomus hastatus [ 54 ], and also in the Myotis riparius chiropter bat [ 54 ].…”