How and Why Overcome the Impediments to Resolution: Lessons from rhinolophid and hipposiderid Bats

Foley, Nicole M.; Thong, Vu Dinh; Soisook, Pipat; Goodman, Steven M.; Armstrong, Kyle N.; Jacobs, David S.; Puechmaille, Sébastien J.; Teeling, Emma C.

By addressing the phylogenetic controversies and taxonomic uncertainties, our phylogeny has implications for the detection and surveillance of novel coronaviruses, as well as conservation strategies for these unique lineages. The recent emergence of the novel MERS-CoV (Bermingham et al. 2013 ) has highlighted the importance of detecting and monitoring animal reservoirs of potentially pathological novel coronaviruses. The intermediate phylogenetic position of a SARS-like CoV between Rhinolophidae and Hipposideridae derived from Rhinonicteris (Ar ) is supported by the resolved phylogeny for these bats as its phylogenetic position reflects the underlying divergence of these three bat families. Although they have been underrepresented in previous studies-see table 2 in Ar Gouilh et al. (2011)-our phylogenetic results suggest that other members of the Rhinonycteridae may represent excellent survey candidates to expand knowledge of the diversity of coronaviruses, especially those related to the Betacoronavirus-b group, which includes the SARS-CoV. Given the similarity of diversification rates between Rhinolophus and Hipposideros, studies focused on detecting novel coronaviruses in Hipposideros could potentially mirror the diversity of coronaviruses detected so far in Rhinolophus. A comprehensive understanding of the diversity of coronaviruses is important for human health in that as the genetic diversity of zoonotic viruses increases so too does the possibilities of variants crossing species boundaries .