Two Novel Parvoviruses in Frugivorous New and Old World Bats

Canuti, Marta; Eis-Huebinger, Anna Maria; Deijs, Martin; de Vries, Michel; Drexler, Jan Felix; Oppong, Samuel K.; Müller, Marcel A.; Klose, Stefan M.; Wellinghausen, Nele; Cottontail, Veronika M.; Kalko, Elisabeth K. V.; Drosten, Christian; van der Hoek, Lia

Bats (order Chiroptera, 1232 species [1] ), the only mammals capable of actively sustained flight, are among the most diverse and species-rich vertebrate taxa. They play key roles in various ecosystems throughout the world [2, 3] . Furthermore, they also harbour pathogens and act as reservoir hosts of viruses that might be of relevance to human and domestic animal health [2] . Although the transmission of viruses from bats to humans has been proven only for rabies and some other lyssaviruses [3] , as well as for Nipah [4] and Hendra virus [5] and assumed for SARS-CoVlike viruses [6] , a wide range of highly pathogenic viruses have been detected in bats, e.g. Ebola [7] and Marburg [8] viruses. As a consequence, virus discovery techniques have in recent years been used widely to identify previously unknown viruses in bats and have led to recognition of numerous new species in saliva, faeces as well as in respiratory and alimentary specimens (e.g. astroviruses [9] , coronaviruses [10] , paramyxoviruses [11] . In some cases the identified viruses (e.g. coronaviruses) are phylogenetically related to human viruses [10] indicating possible prior transmission to humans, although for most viruses there are no indications for recent zoonotic transmissions from bats to humans. The majority of the newly described bat viral species are RNA viruses, but several DNA viruses (e.g. circoviruses [12] , polyomaviruses [13] , adenoviruses [14] and herpesviruses [15] ) have also been detected recently. In addition, two studies describe the identification of members of the Parvoviridae family in fecal samples of different species of bats [12, 16] The Parvoviridae, comprising the subfamily Parvovirinae (viruses that infect vertebrates) and the subfamily Densovirinae (viruses that infect arthropods), are non-enveloped viruses, containing a single stranded DNA genome of approximately 5 kb. The Parvovirinae subfamily is currently subdivided into 5 well established genera (Parvovirus, Amdovirus, Erythrovirus, Dependovirus, Bocavirus) and a new genus (PARV-4 like viruses) that contains 5 viruses that have recently been identified: Human Parvovirus 4 (PARV4, identified in humans in 2005) [17] classified into three genotypes, Bovine Hokovirus (BoHV, 2008) [18] , Porcine Hokovirus (PoHV, 2008) [18] [19] , and a Chimpanzee and a Baboon PARV4-like virus (2010) [20] . Some of the Parvovirinae viruses require a co-infection with a helper virus to be perpetuated (the majority of the viruses within the genus Dependovirus), but most can replicate autonomously.