Extensive genetic diversity of bat-borne polyomaviruses reveals inter-family host-switching events

Zhizhou Tan; Gabriel Gonzalez; Jinliang Sheng; Jianmin Wu; Fuqiang Zhang; Lin Xu; Peisheng Zhang; Aiwei Zhu; Yonggang Qu; Changchun Tu; Michael J. Carr; Biao He

The host-switching events identified in this study were strongly associated with the ecological 528 environment of the hosts, with host-switching only identified between different bat species in one 529 to two colonies. Our study suggests that PyVs can transmit between different mammalian hosts 530 between two different animal families by frequent contact of hosts within specific environments, 531 such as the densely packed bat populations that occur in large hibernacula in caves. The The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It . https://doi.org/10.1101/627158 doi: bioRxiv preprint 535 PyV attachment to target cells is mediated by cell surface receptors. MHC class I acts as a 536 co-receptor and SV40 employs the ganglioside GM1 as receptor [61] . The finding that 537 gangliosides are also primary receptors for human PyVs via VP1 [62] suggests that this may be a 538 general property for primate PyVs although whether this is applicable to other mammalian PyVs, 539 including bats, is unknown. In the present study, amino acid residues in VP1 were found to be The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It . https://doi.org/10.1101/627158 doi: bioRxiv preprint