title: Identification of a Lineage D Betacoronavirus in Cave Nectar Bats (Eonycteris spelaea) in Singapore and an Overview of Lineage D Reservoir Ecology in SE Asian Bats.
abstract: Coronaviruses are a diverse group of viruses that infect mammals and birds. Bats are reservoirs for several different coronaviruses in the Alphacoronavirus and Betacoronavirus genera. They also appear to be the natural reservoir for the ancestral viruses that generated the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreaks. Here, we detected coronavirus sequences in next-generation sequence data created from Eonycteris spelaea faeces and urine. We also screened by PCR urine samples, faecal samples and rectal swabs collected from six species of bats in Singapore between 2011 and 2014, all of which were negative. The phylogenetic analysis indicates this novel strain is most closely related to lineage D Betacoronaviruses detected in a diverse range of bat species. This is the second time that coronaviruses have been detected in cave nectar bats, but the first coronavirus sequence data generated from this species. Bat species from which this group of coronaviruses has been detected are widely distributed across SE Asia, South Asia and Southern China. They overlap geographically, often share roosting sites and have been witnessed to forage on the same plant. The addition of sequence data from this group of viruses will allow us to better understand coronavirus evolution and host specificity.
authors.affiliation: Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
authors.forename: I H
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4250-6459
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Mendenhall
authors.affiliation: Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Borthwick
authors.affiliation: Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Neves
authors.affiliation: Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Low
authors.affiliation: Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Linster
authors.affiliation: Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Skiles
authors.affiliation: Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jayakumar
authors.affiliation: Bioinformatics Institute, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Bioinformatics Institute, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gunalan
authors.affiliation: Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.|National Parks Board, Singapore.
authors.forename: B P Y-H
authors.initials: BPY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okahara
authors.affiliation: Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
authors.forename: L-F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Bioinformatics Institute, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore.|School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maurer-Stroh
authors.affiliation: Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
authors.forename: Y C F
authors.initials: YCF
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.|Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: G J D
authors.initials: GJD
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000073640:Betacoronavirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000821:virology*; D018352:Coronavirus Infections / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D004197:Disease Reservoirs / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D004463:Ecology; D005243:Feces / Q000821:virology; D005260:Female; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / Q000662:veterinary; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D008297:Male; D010802:Phylogeny; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D012846:Singapore / Q000453:epidemiology; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis; D014556:Urine / Q000821:virology
keywords: disease ecology; distribution; evolution; virus diversity