Presence of Recombinant Bat Coronavirus GCCDC1 in Cambodian Bats

Feng Zhu (1) , Veasna Duong (2) , Xiao Fang Lim (1) , Vibol Hul (2, 3) , Tanu Chawla (1) , Lucy Keatts (4, 5) , Tracey Goldstein (5) , Alexandre Hassanin (6) , Vuong Tan Tu (7) , Philippe Buchy (2) , October Sessions (1) , Lin-Fa Wang (1) , Philippe Dussart (2) , Danielle Anderson (1, 8)

1 Duke-NUS Medical School [Singapore]
2 Institut Pasteur du Cambodge
3 UVE - Unité des Virus Emergents
4 WCS - Wildlife Conservation Society
5 UC Davis - University of California [Davis]
6 ISYEB - Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité
7 VAST - Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology
8 University of Melbourne

Bats have been recognized as an exceptional viral reservoir, especially for coronaviruses. At least three bat zoonotic coronaviruses (SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2) have been shown to cause severe diseases in humans and it is expected more will emerge. One of the major features of CoVs is that they are all highly prone to recombination. An extreme example is the insertion of the P10 gene from reoviruses in the bat CoV GCCDC1, first discovered in Rousettus leschenaultii bats in China. Here, we report the detection of GCCDC1 in four different bat species (Eonycteris spelaea, Cynopterus sphinx, Rhinolophus shameli and Rousettus sp.) in Cambodia. This finding demonstrates a much broader geographic and bat species range for this virus and indicates common cross-species transmission. Interestingly, one of the bat samples showed a co-infection with an Alpha CoV most closely related to RsYN14, a virus recently discovered in the same genus (Rhinolophus) of bat in Yunnan, China, 2020. Taken together, our latest findings highlight the need to conduct active surveillance in bats to assess the risk of emerging CoVs, especially in Southeast Asia.

Mots clés: bats; coronavirus; GCCDC1; zoonosis; recombination; co-infection; cross-species transmission

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Feng Zhu, Veasna Duong, Xiao Fang Lim, Vibol Hul, Tanu Chawla, et al.. Presence of Recombinant Bat Coronavirus GCCDC1 in Cambodian Bats. Viruses, 2022, 14 (2), pp.176. ⟨10.3390/v14020176⟩. ⟨pasteur-04096662⟩