Whole genome analysis of Dakrong virus, a novel hantavirus harbored by the Stoliczka's Asian trident ( stoliczkanus) in Vietnam Satoru Arai1, Son Truong Nguyen2, Vuong Tan Tu2, Hoang Trung Thanh3, Saw Bawm4, Kyaw San Lin4, Se Hun Gu5, Satoshi D. Ohdachi6, Keiko Tanaka-Taya1, Yasuhiro Yoshikawa7, Shigeru Morikawa1, Richard Yanagihara5, Kazunori Oishi1 1 National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan; 2Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam; 3Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Vietnam; 4University of Veterinary Science, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar; 5University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA; 6Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan; 7Chiba Institute of Science, Choshi, Japan. E- Mail: [email protected] Background: The recent discovery of genetically distinct hantaviruses in multiple species of shrews and moles (order Eulipotyphla) prompted a further exploration of their host diversification by analyzing (order Chiroptera). Methods: Total RNA, extracted from RNAlater®-preserved lung tissues of 449 bats representing 17 genera and 57 species in six families (Emballonuridae, , Megadermatidae, Pteropodidae, Rhinolophidae and Vespertilionidae), captured in Vietnam and Myanmar during 2012-2014, was analyzed for hantavirus RNA by RT-PCR. Results: Hantavirus RNAs were detected in one of 12 Stoliczka's Asian trident bats (Aselliscus stoliczkanus) (family Hipposideridae) and one of five least leaf-nosed bats ( cineraceus) (family Hipposideridae) from Quảng Trị Province, Vietnam. Pair-wise alignment and phylogenetic analysis, based on the full-length coding regions of the S- (1339 bp), M- (3622 bp) and L-segments (6535 bp), using maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods, demonstrated that the newfound hantavirus in the Stoliczka's Asian , designated Dakrong virus (DKGV), belonged to divergent lineages, comprising other recently recognized bat-borne hantaviruses. The other hantavirus in the least leaf-nosed bat was very closely related to Xuan Son virus (XSV), previously identified in the Pomona round-leaf bat (Hipposideros pomona) in northern and central Vietnam. Tanglegrams, generated by TreeMap 2.0b, showed a high degree of concordance between bat-borne hantaviruses and their bat host species, suggesting that bats are natural reservoirs, much like rodents and shrews. Conclusions: With the discovery of DKGV, the number of bat-borne hantaviruses now total eight (five in Asia and three in Africa). All eight are harbored by insectivorous bats, in keeping with the conjecture that primordial hantaviruses may have originated as insect viruses.