A preliminary study of the virome of the South American Free-Tailed Bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) and identification of two novel mammalian viruses

Irene Villa, German Saigo, Mauricio Taborda, and Violeta Di Domenica, for collecting bat samples2020-05-062020-05-062020-04-091999-4915http://hdl.handle.net/2133/18096Bats provide important ecosystem services as pollinators, seed dispersers, and/or insect controllers, but they have also been found harboring different viruses with zoonotic potential. Virome studies in bats distributed in Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America have increased dramatically over the past decade, whereas information on viruses infecting South American species is scarce. We explored the virome of Tadarida brasiliensis, an insectivorous New World bat species inhabiting a maternity colony in Rosario (Argentina), by a metagenomic approach. The analysis of five pooled oral/anal swab samples indicated the presence of 43 different taxonomic viral families infecting a wide range of hosts. By conventional nucleic acid detection techniques and/or bioinformatics approaches, the genomes of two novel viruses were completely covered clustering into the Papillomaviridae (Tadarida brasiliensis papillomavirus type 1, TbraPV1) and Genomoviridae (Tadarida brasiliensis gemykibivirus 1, TbGkyV1) families. TbraPV1 is the first papillomavirus type identified in this host and the prototype of a novel genus. TbGkyV1 is the first genomovirus reported in New World bats and constitutes a new species within the genus Gemykibivirus. Our findings extend the knowledge about oral/anal viromes of a South American bat species and contribute to understand the evolution and genetic diversity of the novel characterized viruses.application/pdfengopenAccessTadarida brasiliensisMetagenomicsPapillomaviridaeTbraPV1GenomoviridaeTbGkyV1CoronavirusA preliminary study of the virome of the South American Free-Tailed Bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) and identification of two novel mammalian virusesarticleBolatti, Elisa MaríaZorec, Tomaž M.Montani, María E.Hošnjak, LeaChouhy, DiegoViarengo, GastónCasal, Pablo E.Barquez, Rubén M.Poljak, MarioGiri, Adriana AngélicaUniversidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y FarmacéuticasAtribución 4.0 Internacional (CC BY 4.0) © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution