Bats Are a Major Natural Reservoir for Hepaciviruses and Pegiviruses
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Bats are a major natural reservoir for hepaciviruses and pegiviruses Phenix-Lan Quana,1, Cadhla Firtha, Juliette M. Contea, Simon H. Williamsa, Carlos M. Zambrana-Torreliob, Simon J. Anthonya,b, James A. Ellisonc, Amy T. Gilbertc, Ivan V. Kuzminc,2, Michael Niezgodac, Modupe O. V. Osinubic, Sergio Recuencoc, Wanda Markotterd, Robert F. Breimane, Lems Kalembaf, Jean Malekanif, Kim A. Lindbladeg, Melinda K. Rostalb, Rafael Ojeda-Floresh, Gerardo Suzanh, Lora B. Davisi, Dianna M. Blauj, Albert B. Ogunkoyak, Danilo A. Alvarez Castillol, David Moranl, Sali Ngamm, Dudu Akaiben, Bernard Agwandao, Thomas Briesea, Jonathan H. Epsteinb, Peter Daszakb, Charles E. Rupprechtc,3, Edward C. Holmesp, and W. Ian Lipkina aCenter for Infection and Immunity, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032; bEcoHealth Alliance, New York, NY 10001; cPoxvirus and Rabies Branch, Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333; dDepartment of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa; eCenters for Disease Control and Prevention in Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya; fUniversity of Kinshasa, Kinshasa 11, Democratic Republic of the Congo; gCenters for Disease Control and Prevention Guatemala, 01015, Guatemala City, Guatemala; hFacultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 México D. F., Mexico; iCenters for Disease Control and Prevention Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria; jInfectious Diseases Pathology Branch, Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333; kDepartment of Veterinary Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University, Samaru, Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria; lCenter for Health Studies, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, 01015, Guatemala City, Guatemala; mLaboratoire National Vétérinaire, B.P. 503 Garoua, Cameroon; nCentre de Surveillance de la Biodiversité, University of Kisangani, B.P. 2012 Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo; oMammalogy Section, National Museums of Kenya, 00100 Nairobi, Kenya; pSydney Emerging Infections and Biosecurity Institute, School of Biological Sciences and Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia Edited* by Harvey Alter, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, and approved March 25, 2013 (received for review February 19, 2013) Although there are over 1,150 bat species worldwide, the diversity cause of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carci- of viruses harbored by bats has only recently come into focus as noma, with ∼3% of the global population infected (16, 17). HCV a result of expanded wildlife surveillance. Such surveys are of and its distant relative, GB virus B (GBV-B), belong to the genus importance in determining the potential for novel viruses to emerge Hepacivirus within the family Flaviridae of single-stranded, positive- in humans, and for optimal management of bats and their habitats. sense RNA viruses (18, 19). New World monkeys can be experi- To enhance our knowledge of the viral diversity present in bats, we mentally infected with GBV-B, resulting in clinical hepatitis (20). initially surveyed 415 sera from African and Central American bats. Recently, nonprimate hepaciviruses (NPHV) were discovered in Unbiased high-throughput sequencing revealed the presence of domestic animals (dogs, horses), expanding the natural host range a highly diverse group of bat-derived viruses related to hepacivi- of these agents (21–23). A new flavivirus genus, Pegivirus, has been ruses and pegiviruses within the family Flaviridae. Subsequent PCR proposed for GB viruses GBV-A, GBV-C, and GBV-D (19). GBV-A screening of 1,258 bat specimens collected worldwide indicated the viruses have been identified in nonhuman primates and are not presence of these viruses also in North America and Asia. A total of known to infect humans, whereas GBV-C is frequently isolated 83 bat-derived viruses were identified, representing an infection from humans and chimpanzees (19). GBV-D was recently identi- rate of nearly 5%. Evolutionary analyses revealed that all known fied in Old World frugivorous bats (24). No pegiviruses have yet hepaciviruses and pegiviruses, including those previously docu- been identified to cause disease in their hosts (19). mented in humans and other primates, fall within the phylogenetic Here, we report the discovery of a highly diverse group of bat- diversity of the bat-derived viruses described here. The prevalence, derivedvirusesrelatedtohepaciviruses and pegiviruses. The unprecedented viral biodiversity, phylogenetic divergence, and prevalence, unprecedented viral biodiversity, and broad geo- worldwide distribution of the bat-derived viruses suggest that bats graphic distribution of these viruses, identified throughout the are a major and ancient natural reservoir for both hepaciviruses and order Chiroptera, suggest that bats are a key natural reservoir for pegiviruses and provide insights into the evolutionary history of both hepaciviruses and pegiviruses. hepatitis C virus and the human GB viruses. Results etermining the natural reservoirs for emerging pathogens is Discovery of Bat-Derived Hepaciviruses and Pegiviruses. We surveyed Dcritical for disease prediction and prevention. Nearly 60% of serum specimens from 415 apparently healthy bats captured emerging infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic, with up to from five different countries (Guatemala, Cameroon, Nigeria, 70% originating from wildlife (1). Bats [order Chiroptera, sub- orders Yinpterochiroptera and Yangochiroptera (2, 3)] are a nat- ural reservoir for many important zoonotic viruses that cause severe Author contributions: P.-L.Q. and W.I.L. designed research; P.-L.Q., J.M.C., and S.H.W. per- disease in humans, including lyssaviruses, severe acute respiratory formed research; P.-L.Q., C.M.Z.-T., S.J.A., J.A.E., A.T.G., I.V.K., M.N., M.O.V.O., S.R., W.M., R.F.B., L.K., J.M., K.A.L., M.K.R., R.O.-F., G.S., L.B.D., D.M.B., A.B.O., D.A.A.C., D.M., S.N., syndrome (SARS)-related coronaviruses (SARS-related CoV), D.A., B.A., J.H.E., P.D., and C.E.R. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; P.-L.Q., C.F., J.M.C., filoviruses, henipaviruses, and other paramyxoviruses (4–13). In S.H.W., C.M.Z.-T., T.B., E.C.H., and W.I.L. analyzed data; and P.-L.Q., C.F., T.B., E.C.H., and addition, several viruses establish persistent viral infections in bats, W.I.L. wrote the paper. in which apparent clinical signs appear only rarely (5). Bats possess The authors declare no conflict of interest. unique characteristics that may contribute to their capacity to *This Direct Submission article had a prearranged editor. function as a major reservoir host for viruses, including long life- Data deposition: The sequences reported in this paper have been deposited in the span, high species diversity, unique immune systems, gregarious GenBank database. For a list of accession numbers for the viruses identified in this study, roosting behaviors, and high spatial mobility and population see SI Appendix, Tables S6 and S7. densities (5). 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]. Although hepatitis C virus (HCV) was discovered more than 20 y 2Present address: Aravan, LLC, Lilburn, GA 30047. ago, its origin is unknown, and, until recently, humans appeared to 3Present address: The Global Alliance for Rabies Control, Manhattan, KS 66502. be its only natural host (14, 15). HCV was initially isolated from the This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10. serum of a person with non-A, non-B hepatitis and is now a leading 1073/pnas.1303037110/-/DCSupplemental. 8194–8199 | PNAS | May 14, 2013 | vol. 110 | no. 20 www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1303037110 Downloaded by guest on September 25, 2021 Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Kenya) that represent 33 genetic material from a total of 58 bat-derived viruses was species, 26 genera, and seven families (SI Appendix, Tables S1 and detected (SI Appendix, Tables S3 and S4). S2). Aliquots of sera were combined into 43 pools for nucleic acid To further explore the distribution of these viruses in other extraction; total RNA was randomly amplified and subjected to countries and bat species, an additional 1,166 sera/plasma speci- unbiased high-throughput sequencing (UHTS) (25). After re- mens and 83 tissue specimens from 34 bats (kidney, liver, and lung), moval of host sequences, each pool yielded between 87 and 3,098 representing 40 species, 31 genera, and seven families of bats from unique reads and 1–128 assembled contiguous sequences. The Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Mexico were screened (SI Appendix,Table analysis of these sequence data at the nucleotide (nt) and amino S2). Twenty-three sera/plasma and one lung specimen were posi- tive. Additional specimens from 9 of the bats from Mexico with acid (aa) levels revealed the presence of sequences with distant positive sera specimens, consisting of seven oral and two rectal similarity to flaviviruses in 29 sera pools. Between 1 and 716 fla- swabs were also tested. One positive rectal swab was detected (SI vivirus sequences, ranging from 50 to 10,803 nt in length, were fi Appendix,TablesS3andS4). identi ed in the positive pools. The sequences showed aa sequence In total, 1,673 specimens, collected between 2007 and 2011 from similarities ranging from 24% to 100% to members of the genus 1,615 bats representing 58 species, 44 genera, and eight families in Hepacivirus or Pegivirus. Specific and degenerate primers targeting seven countries worldwide were screened (SI Appendix,TableS2). a conserved motif in the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene The genetic material of bat-derived viruses was detected in six of (RdRp or NS5B) were designed from the UHTS data and used to the eight families of bats tested, representing all major phyloge- confirm the initial findings, and further for screening all individual netic lineages of the chiroptera.