scholarly journals Metagenomic Analysis of the Viromes of Three North American Bat Species: Viral Diversity among Different Bat Species That Share a Common Habitat

2010 ◽  
Vol 84 (24) ◽  
pp. 13004-13018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric F. Donaldson ◽  
Aimee N. Haskew ◽  
J. Edward Gates ◽  
Jeremy Huynh ◽  
Clea J. Moore ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Population Diversity ◽  
Myotis Lucifugus ◽  
Viral Population ◽  
Tissue Samples ◽  
Big Brown Bats ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Natural Hosts ◽  
Reservoir Hosts

ABSTRACT Effective prediction of future viral zoonoses requires an in-depth understanding of the heterologous viral population in key animal species that will likely serve as reservoir hosts or intermediates during the next viral epidemic. The importance of bats as natural hosts for several important viral zoonoses, including Ebola, Marburg, Nipah, Hendra, and rabies viruses and severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (SARS-CoV), has been established; however, the large viral population diversity (virome) of bats has been partially determined for only a few of the ∼1,200 bat species. To assess the virome of North American bats, we collected fecal, oral, urine, and tissue samples from individual bats captured at an abandoned railroad tunnel in Maryland that is cohabitated by 7 to 10 different bat species. Here, we present preliminary characterization of the virome of three common North American bat species, including big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus), tricolored bats (Perimyotis subflavus), and little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus). In samples derived from these bats, we identified viral sequences that were similar to at least three novel group 1 CoVs, large numbers of insect and plant virus sequences, and nearly full-length genomic sequences of two novel bacteriophages. These observations suggest that bats encounter and disseminate a large assortment of viruses capable of infecting many different animals, insects, and plants in nature.

Development of Trypanosoma (Schizotrypanum) hedricki in Cimex brevis (Hemiptera: Cimicidae)

1981 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 546-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan M. Bower ◽  
Patrick T. K. Woo
Keyword(s):  
Aedes Aegypti ◽  
Trypanosoma Cruzi ◽  
Blood Meal ◽  
Agar Medium ◽  
Blood Feeding ◽  
Oral Route ◽  
Myotis Lucifugus ◽  
Infected Blood ◽  
Big Brown Bats ◽  
Large Numbers

Trypanosoma hedricki Bower and Woo from the blood of big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus (Palisot de Beauvois)) developed in Cimex brevis Usinger and Ueshima. Approximately 24 h after the infected blood meal, the majority of the flagellates were still present in the first ventriculus of the gut but had transformed into epimastigotes. These epimastigotes divided by longitudinal binary fission. Four days after the blood meal, a few flagellates had reached the rectum of bugs held at 25 °C. These transformed into long thin metatrypanosomes. Not all bugs could be infected with T. hedricki but by 12 days after feeding, bugs with trypanosomes usually contained large numbers of metatrypanosomes in the rectum. These metatrypanosomes were infective to big brown bats when inoculated via the intraperitoneal or oral route. Little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus (Le Conte)) could not be infected. The morphology of the vector forms was similar to that of forms cultured in diphasic blood agar medium at about 21 °C and to those of Trypanosoma cruzi Chagas reported from triatomine bugs.Trypanosoma hedricki would not develop in blood-feeding mites (Steatonyssus occidentalis (Ewing)), Rhodnius prolixus Stål, or Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus).

scholarly journals Emergence of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants in the Netherlands

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aysun Urhan ◽  
Thomas Abeel
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Population Diversity ◽  
Genomic Variation ◽  
Population Variation ◽  
Reference Sequence ◽  
Viral Population ◽  
Phylogenetic Study ◽  
First Case ◽  
Novel Variants ◽  
Frequent Mutations

AbstractCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged in December 2019 when the first case was reported in Wuhan, China and turned into a pandemic with 27 million (September 9th) cases. Currently, there are over 95,000 complete genome sequences of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus causing COVID-19, in public databases, accompanying a growing number of studies. Nevertheless, there is still much to learn about the viral population variation when the virus is evolving as it continues to spread. We have analyzed SARS-CoV-2 genomes to identify the most variant sites, as well as the stable, conserved ones in samples collected in the Netherlands until June 2020. We identified the most frequent mutations in different geographies. We also performed a phylogenetic study focused on the Netherlands to detect novel variants emerging in the late stages of the pandemic and forming local clusters. We investigated the S and N proteins on SARS-CoV-2 genomes in the Netherlands and found the most variant and stable sites to guide development of diagnostics assays and vaccines. We observed that while the SARS-CoV-2 genome has accumulated mutations, diverging from reference sequence, the variation landscape is dominated by four mutations globally, suggesting the current reference does not represent the virus samples circulating currently. In addition, we detected novel variants of SARS-CoV-2 almost unique to the Netherlands that form localized clusters and region-specific sub-populations indicating community spread. We explored SARS-CoV-2 variants in the Netherlands until June 2020 within a global context; our results provide insight into the viral population diversity for localized efforts in tracking the transmission of COVID-19, as well as sequenced-based approaches in diagnostics and therapeutics. We emphasize that little diversity is observed globally in recent samples despite the increased number of mutations relative to the established reference sequence. We suggest sequence-based analyses should opt for a consensus representation to adequately cover the genomic variation observed to speed up diagnostics and vaccine design.

scholarly journals Hepatic lipid signatures of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) and big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) at early stages of white-nose syndrome

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan L. Pannkuk ◽  
Nicole A. S.-Y. Dorville ◽  
Yvonne A. Dzal ◽  
Quinn E. Fletcher ◽  
Kaleigh J. O. Norquay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lipid Metabolism ◽  
Fatty Acid Distribution ◽  
Eptesicus Fuscus ◽  
Myotis Lucifugus ◽  
Pseudogymnoascus Destructans ◽  
Hepatic Lipid ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
White Nose Syndrome ◽  
Big Brown Bats ◽  
Little Brown Bats

AbstractWhite-nose syndrome (WNS) is an emergent wildlife fungal disease of cave-dwelling, hibernating bats that has led to unprecedented mortalities throughout North America. A primary factor in WNS-associated bat mortality includes increased arousals from torpor and premature fat depletion during winter months. Details of species and sex-specific changes in lipid metabolism during WNS are poorly understood and may play an important role in the pathophysiology of the disease. Given the likely role of fat metabolism in WNS and the fact that the liver plays a crucial role in fatty acid distribution and lipid storage, we assessed hepatic lipid signatures of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) and big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) at an early stage of infection with the etiological agent, Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd). Differences in lipid profiles were detected at the species and sex level in the sham-inoculated treatment, most strikingly in higher hepatic triacylglyceride (TG) levels in E. fuscus females compared to males. Interestingly, several dominant TGs (storage lipids) decreased dramatically after Pd infection in both female M. lucifugus and E. fuscus. Increases in hepatic glycerophospholipid (structural lipid) levels were only observed in M. lucifugus, including two phosphatidylcholines (PC [32:1], PC [42:6]) and one phosphatidylglycerol (PG [34:1]). These results suggest that even at early stages of WNS, changes in hepatic lipid mobilization may occur and be species and sex specific. As pre-hibernation lipid reserves may aid in bat persistence and survival during WNS, these early perturbations to lipid metabolism could have important implications for management responses that aid in pre-hibernation fat storage.

scholarly journals Super-cells untangle large and complex single-cell transcriptome networks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariia Bilous ◽  
Loc Tran ◽  
Chiara Cianciaruso ◽  
Santiago J Carmona ◽  
Mikael J Pittet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Single Cell ◽  
Coarse Graining ◽  
Cell Populations ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Single Cell Rna Sequencing ◽  
Gene Correlation ◽  
Cell Transcriptome ◽  
Single Cell Transcriptome

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technologies offer unique opportunities for exploring heterogeneous cell populations. However, in-depth single-cell transcriptomic characterization of complex tissues often requires profiling tens to hundreds of thousands of cells. Such large numbers of cells represent an important hurdle for downstream analyses, interpretation and visualization. Here we develop a network-based coarse-graining framework where highly similar cells are merged into super-cells. We demonstrate that super-cells not only preserve but often improve the results of downstream analyses including visualization, clustering, differential expression, cell type annotation, gene correlation, imputation, RNA velocity and data integration. By capitalizing on the redundancy inherent to scRNA-seq data, super-cells significantly facilitate and accelerate the construction and interpretation of single-cell atlases, as demonstrated by the integration of 1.46 million cells from COVID-19 patients in less than two hours on a standard desktop.

Isolation and Molecular Characterization of Newcastle Disease Virus in Layers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Smita Bordoloi ◽  
Anju Nayak ◽  
A.P. Singh ◽  
R.V. Singh ◽  
Kajal Jadav ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Newcastle Disease Virus ◽  
Disease Virus ◽  
Newcastle Disease ◽  
Virulent Strain ◽  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Tissue Samples ◽  
F Gene ◽  
Virulent Newcastle Disease Virus

Background: Newcastle disease (ND) in spite of the availability of vaccines remains a constant threat to poultry producers worldwide. It is prevalent in Indian subcontinent and leads to economic losses. The present study was aimed with isolate and identify virulent Newcastle disease virus (NDV) in layer poultry from field outbreaks.Methods: Total 47 samples consisting of nasal (05), oropharyngeal (13) and cloacal swabs (11) and tissue samples consisting of trachea (07), lungs (06), larynx (05) were collected from layer birds. For isolation of NDV swab and tissue samples were inoculated in 9-11 days old embryonated eggs via allantoic cavity route. After preparing the viral inoculum, 47 suspected samples (29 swab and 18 tissue samples) were inoculated in 141 embryonated eggs to isolate the virus.Result: Out of 47 samples 10 (21.27%) samples were positive for HA activity. All the 10 isolates showing HA activity subjected to Reverse-Transcriptase PCR of F gene and 6 were found positive in RT-PCR for F1 gene. The PCR amplified product showed amplicon at 356 bp and 254 bp positive for F1 and F2 gene, respectively. On basis of F gene, 06 (50%) isolates were considered as virulent Newcastle Disease Virus. One isolate sequence was submitted at NCBI with accession MT890653 On phylogenetic analysis MT890653 designated as Class II/ genotype II/ virulent strain and had the motif 112R-R-R-K-R-F117 at the cleavage site of the fusion protein.

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