Summary: Scientists compared the different kinds of coronaviruses living in 36 bat species from the western Indian Ocean and nearby areas of Africa. They found that different groups of bats have their own unique strains of coronavirus, revealing that bats and coronaviruses have been evolving together for millions of years. Developing a better understanding of how coronaviruses evolved can help us create better public health programs for the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “We found that there’s a deep evolutionary history between bats and \ncoronaviruses,” says Steve Goodman, MacArthur Field Biologist at \nChicago’s Field Museum and an author of a paper just released in Scientific Reports<\/em>\n detailing the discovery. “Developing a better understanding of how \ncoronaviruses evolved can help us build public health programs in the \nfuture.” The study was led by Universit\u00e9 de La R\u00e9union scientists L\u00e9a \nJoffrin and Camille Lebarbenchon, who conducted the genetic analyses in \nthe laboratory of “Processus infectieux en milieu insulaire tropical \n(PIMIT)” on R\u00e9union Island, focusing on emerging infectious diseases on \nislands in the western Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of people use “coronavirus” as a synonym for “COVID-19,” the \nkind of coronavirus causing the current pandemic. However, there are a \nvast number of types of different coronaviruses, potentially as many as \nbat species, and most of them are unknown to be transferred to humans \nand pose no known threat. The coronaviruses carried by the bats studied \nin this paper are different from the one behind COVID-19, but by \nlearning about coronaviruses in bats in general, we can better \nunderstand the virus affecting us today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All animals have viruses that live inside them, and bats, as well as a\n range of other mammal groups, happen to be natural carriers of \ncoronaviruses. These coronaviruses don’t appear to be harmful to the \nbats, but there’s potential for them to be dangerous to other animals if\n the viruses have opportunities to jump between species. This study \nexamines the genetic relationships between different strains of \ncoronaviruses and the animals they live in, which sets the stage for a \nbetter understanding of the transfer of viruses from animals to humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Goodman, who has been based on Madagascar for several decades, and \nhis colleagues took swab and some cases blood samples from more than a \nthousand bats representing 36 species found on islands in the western \nIndian Ocean and coastal areas of the African nation of Mozambique. \nEight percent of the bats they sampled were carrying a coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “This is a very rough estimate of the proportion of infected bats. \nThere is increasing evidence for seasonal variation in the circulation \nof these viruses in bats, suggesting that this number may significantly \nvary according to the time of the year,” says Camille Lebarbenchon, \nDisease Ecologist at the Universit\u00e9 de La R\u00e9union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The researchers ran genetic analyses of the coronaviruses present in \nthese bats. By comparing the coronaviruses isolated and sequenced in the\n context of this study with ones from other animals including dolphins, \nalpacas, and humans, they were able to build a giant coronavirus family \ntree. This family tree shows how the different kinds of coronavirus are \nrelated to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We found that for the most part, each of the different genera of \nfamilies of bats for which coronavirus sequences were available had \ntheir own strains,” says Goodman. “Moreover, based on the evolutionary \nhistory of the different bat groups, it is clear that there is a deep \ncoexistence between bats (at the level of genus and family) and their \nassociated coronaviruses.” For example, fruit bats of the family \nPteropodidae from different continents and islands formed a cluster in \ntheir tree and were genetically different than the coronavirus strains \nof other groups of bats found in the same geographical zones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The team found that in rare cases, bats of different families, \ngenera, and species that live in the same caves and have closely spaced \nday roost sites shared the same strain of coronavirus. But in this \nstudy, the transmission between species is the exception, not the rule. \n“It is quite reassuring that the transmission of coronavirus in the \nregion between two bat species seems to be very rare given the high \ndiversity of bat coronaviruses. Next, we need to understand \nenvironmental, biological, and molecular factors leading to these rare \nshifts” says L\u00e9a Joffrin, a disease ecologist who worked on bat \ncoronavirus during her PhD at the Universit\u00e9 de La R\u00e9union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Learning how different strains of coronavirus evolved could be key \nfor preventing future coronavirus outbreaks. “Before you can actually \nfigure out programs for public health and try to deal with the possible \nshift of certain diseases to humans, or from humans to animals, you have\n to know what’s out there. This is kind of the blueprint,” says Goodman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Co-author Patrick Mavingui, microbial ecologist and head of the PIMIT\n Laboratory adds, “The development of serological methods targeting \ncoronavirus strains circulating in the Indian Ocean will help show \nwhether there have already been discrete passages in human populations, \nand their interaction with the hosts will allow a better understanding \nof the emergence risk.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The study also highlights the importance of museum collections, says \nGoodman. The researchers used, in part, bat specimens housed in the \nField Museum, to confirm the identities of the animals employed in this \nstudy. These voucher specimens helped them confidently say which bats \nand from which geographical regions hosted the different strains of \ncoronaviruses. The research also drew from genetic databases like \nGenBank. “This information is important for public health, and the point\n of departure is closely linked to museum specimens,” says Goodman. \n“We’re able to use museum material to study the evolution of a group of \nviruses and its potential applications across wildlife in the world.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Goodman also notes that despite the fact that bats carry \ncoronaviruses, we shouldn’t respond by harming or culling of bats in the\n name of public health. “There’s abundant evidence that bats are \nimportant for ecosystem functioning, whether it be for the pollination \nof flowers, dispersal of fruits, or the consumption of insects, \nparticularly insects that are responsible for transmission of different \ndiseases to humans,” he says. “The good they do for us outweighs any \npotential negatives.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n This study was contributed to by researchers from the PIMIT laboratory (Universit\u00e9 de La R\u00e9union\/INSERM\/CNRS\/IRD), Association Vahatra, the Field Museum, Eduardo Mondlane University, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, the National Parks and Conservation Service of Mauritius, the Seychelles Ministry of Health, and Instituto Nacional de Sa\u00fade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Story Source:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Materials<\/a> provided by Field Museum<\/strong><\/a>. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n www.sciencedaily.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Journal Reference<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.potentialloops.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/200423082231_1_540x360.jpg\")
Credit: \u00a9 pawopa3336 \/ Adobe Stock<\/a><\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Bats do a lot of good for the world — they pollinate plants, they eat disease-carrying insects, and they help disperse seeds that help with the regeneration of tropical forest trees. Bats and a range of other mammal groups are also natural carriers of coronaviruses. To better understand this very diverse family of viruses, which includes the specific coronavirus behind COVID-19, scientists compared the different kinds of coronaviruses living in 36 bat species from the western Indian Ocean and nearby areas of Africa. They found that different groups of bats at the genus and in some cases family level had their own unique strains of coronavirus, revealing that bats and coronaviruses have been evolving together for millions of years. <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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