Virome Profiling of Bats from Myanmar by Metagenomic Analysis of Tissue Samples Reveals More Novel Mammalian Viruses

He, Biao; Li, Zuosheng; Yang, Fanli; Zheng, Junfeng; Feng, Ye; Guo, Huancheng; Li, Yingying; Wang, Yiyin; Su, Nan; Zhang, Fuqiang; Fan, Quanshui; Tu, Changchun

As in previous metagenomic analyses [10, [35] [36] [37] , many novel mammalian viruses have been identified in the present virome, including Astv, CV, Adv, AVV, and bat hepadnavirus. Members of the family Hepadnaviridae have a narrow host range and can infect rodents, primates and birds, but have never before been reported in bats [48, 61] . In the present study, hepadnavirus-like contigs were the second largest population, and showed a genetic similarity to WHV and HBV. PCR and sequencing of a partial S gene sequence showed that the bat hepadnavirus identified here had approximately equal identity with WHV and HBV, strongly suggesting that it should be classified as a new species in genus Orthohepadnavirus.