Biology session

Bats are important reservoirs and transmitters of viruses and other pathogens. They can carry dangerous human and animal viruses (Ebola, rabies, SARS) and also less important pathogens. Our research focuses on detection, diversity analysis and phylogenetic study of bat polyomaviruses.

For the detection of polyomaviruses, we used nested PCR to amplify a fragment from the gene of viral protein 1 (VP1). We examined 65 samples from 23 bat species. Ten samples, representing 6 vesper bat species (Vespertilionidae) proved to be positive for polyomaviruses (15.4%). The sequence analyses indicated the presence of 7 novel sequences, putative novel polyomaviruses. Identical sequences were derived from individuals of the same bat-species. This is the first demonstration of bat polyomaviruses in Europe. Polyomaviruses show high diversity. According to our phylogenetic study, based on the partial VP1 amino acid sequences, some of the newly detected polyomaviruses are closely related to other bat polyomaviruses, whereas some of them seemed to be closer to human and primate polyomaviruses. These findings indicate that host switching events between bats and other mammalian hosts may occur. Because of their potential virus reservoir role, bats are very interesting subjects for virology research, thus further study of the European bats is expedient. We plan further genetic study, possibly sequencing the complete genome of the detected viruses. This will presumably lead to additional important data.