Cameroonian fruit bats harbor divergent viruses, including rotavirus H, bastroviruses, and picobirnaviruses using an alternative genetic code

Yinda, Claude Kwe; Ghogomu, Stephen Mbigha; Conceição-Neto, Nádia; Beller, Leen; Deboutte, Ward; Vanhulle, Emiel; Maes, Piet; Van Ranst, Marc; Matthijnssens, Jelle

Circular Rep-encoding ssDNA (CRESS-DNA) viruses are a diverse group of viruses known to infect a wide range of hosts including crustaceans, fungi, a variety of plants (family Germiniviridae and Nanoviridae) and vertebrate species (family Circoviridae) (TFF et al. 2013; Yu et al. 2010) . Recent studies have identified CRESS-DNA sequences in other environments including aquatic settings, insects and stool of animals (Dayaram et al. 2014; Zawar-Reza et al. 2014; Ng et al. 2015) . Generally, the genomes of most CRESS-DNA viruses are 2-3 kb in length. Genomes of CRESS-DNA generally encode both a replication initiator protein (Rep) and a capsid protein (Cap), and contain a DNA stem loop structure required for the initiation of DNA replication (Stenger et al. 1991) . Here we were able to obtain complete genomes of two CRESS-DNA sequences in different pools tentatively named Bat CyV-LimbeP14/CMR/2014 and Bat CyV-LysokaP4/CMR/2014 with genome length of 1,784 and 1,791 nt, respectively. Both genomes contain two ORFs encoding a Rep and capsid protein with small intergenic region between the 3 0 ends of major ORFs. They also contain the circovirus nonanucleotide motif TAGTATTAC at the apex of a potential stem-loop structure (Supplementary Fig. S7A ). They share 99% identity on the Rep gene and both have the highest amino acid and nucleotide identity (75 and 70%, respectively) to a human cyclovirus strain from Pakistan (GQ404845_CyV-PK5034/PAK/2007). The phylogenetic analysis of the Rep sequences (cyclovirus, Supplementary Fig. S7B ) showed that both identified genomic sequences clustered with the above mentioned human strain. Also, cycloviruses have been found in bats from China and the USA (Li et al. 2010; Ge et al. 2011) . Given that these were insect eating bats, the authors postulated that cycloviruses found in bat feces might infect insects consumed by bats rather than the bats themselves. This same assumption was used to explain the presence of cyclovirus found in humans stool (Rosario et al. 2012) . Following this argument, their presence in fruit-eating bats highlight the possibility of consumption of insect-contaminated fruits. However, the real hosts of these viruses are yet to be determined.