Metagenomic analysis of bat virome in the Guangxi-Vietnam border area

Abstract

The areas covering Guangxi, China and Vietnam have greatly and geographically strategic importance. These areas have abundant bat resources with many harboring diverse zoonotic viruses. In order to monitor the cross-border transmission of bat viruses in the Guangxi-Vietnam border area and to prevent potential emerging infectious diseases caused by bat viruses, understanding the bat virus diversity and their evolution are greatly necessary. Here we conducted viral metagenomic analysis of bats sampled in the border area, and results revealed 49 families of viruses, including those infecting vertebrate, plants, insects and bacteria. Additionally, we screened hepadnavirus, bocaparvovirus, group A rotavirus, astrovirus, rhabdovirus and coronavirus in those bat samples, and phylogenetically analyzed those amplicons. Results showed that astroviruses were widely present in those animals with great genetic diversity, but other viruses were only detected in some specific bats. Bocaparvoviruses and rhabdoviruses were significantly divergent from currently known viruses, and possibly were prototypes of new species. Notably, group A viruses identified here shared high identity with a human virus, suggestive of inter-species transmission and reassortment. The present study profiled the viromic composition harbored by bats in Guangxi-Vietnam border area, and inspected epidemiological situation and evolutionary characteristics of some viruses. Those findings provide fundamental data to cross-border transmission of bat viruses and predict bat virus-related zoonotic potentials.