Publication: Identification of Novel Betaherpesviruses in Iberian Bats Reveals Parallel Evolution
Loading...
Identifiers
Publication date
2016-12-30
Authors
Pozo Sanchez, Francisco ISCIII 
Juste, Javier
Vazquez-Moron, Sonia
Aznar-Lopez, Carolina ISCIII 
Ibáñez, Carlos
Garin, Inazio
Aihartza, Joxerra
Casas Flecha, Inmaculada ISCIII 
Tenorio, Antonio ISCIII
Echevarria, Juan Emilio ISCIII
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLOS)
Metrics
Export
Abstract
A thorough search for bat herpesviruses was carried out in oropharyngeal samples taken from most of the bat species present in the Iberian Peninsula from the Vespertilionidae, Miniopteridae, Molossidae and Rhinolophidae families, in addition to a colony of captive fruit bats from the Pteropodidae family. By using two degenerate consensus PCR methods targeting two conserved genes, distinct and previously unrecognized bat-hosted herpesviruses were identified for the most of the tested species. All together a total of 42 potentially novel bat herpesviruses were partially characterized. Thirty-two of them were tentatively assigned to the Betaherpesvirinae subfamily while the remaining 10 were allocated into the Gammaherpesvirinae subfamily. Significant diversity was observed among the novel sequences when compared with type herpesvirus species of the ICTV-approved genera. The inferred phylogenetic relationships showed that most of the betaherpesviruses sequences fell into a well-supported unique monophyletic clade and support the recognition of a new betaherpesvirus genus. This clade is subdivided into three major clades, corresponding to the families of bats studied. This supports the hypothesis of a species-specific parallel evolution process between the potentially new betaherpesviruses and their bat hosts. Interestingly, two of the betaherpesviruses' sequences detected in rhinolophid bats clustered together apart from the rest, closely related to viruses that belong to the Roseolovirus genus. This suggests a putative third roseolo lineage. On the contrary, no phylogenetic structure was detected among several potentially novel bat-hosted gammaherpesviruses found in the study. Remarkably, all of the possible novel bat herpesviruses described in this study are linked to a unique bat species.
Description
Keywords
DeCS Terms
Bibliographic citation
PLoS One. 2016 Dec 30;11(12):e0169153.