Departments of Veterinary Microbiology, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Department of Biology, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Virology. 2018 Mar;516:227-238. doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2018.01.024.
Little is known about the relationship of Gammaherpesviruses with their bat hosts. Gammaherpesviruses are of interest because of their long-term infection of lymphoid cells and their potential to cause cancer. Here, we report the characterization of a novel bat herpesvirus isolated from a big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) in Canada. The genome of the virus, tentatively named Eptesicus fuscus herpesvirus (EfHV), is 166,748 base pairs. Phylogenetically EfHV is a member of Gammaherpesvirinae, in which it belongs to the Genus Rhadinovirus and is closely related to other bat Gammaherpesviruses. In contrast to other known Gammaherpesviruses, the EfHV genome contains coding sequences similar to those of class I and II host major histocompatibility antigens. The virus is capable of infecting and replicating in human, monkey, cat and pig cell lines. Although we detected EfHV in 20 of 28 big brown bats tested, these bats lacked neutralizing antibodies against the virus.
人们对γ疱疹病毒与其蝙蝠宿主之间的关系知之甚少。γ疱疹病毒之所以引起人们的兴趣，是因为它们能长期感染淋巴细胞，并可能导致癌症。在这里，我们报告了一种从加拿大的大褐蝙蝠（Eptesicus fuscus）中分离到的新型蝙蝠疱疹病毒的特征。该病毒的基因组暂命名为大褐蝙蝠疱疹病毒（EfHV），大小为 166748 个碱基对。系统发育分析表明，EfHV 属于γ疱疹病毒亚科，在该亚科中属于 Rhadinovirus 属，与其他蝙蝠γ疱疹病毒密切相关。与其他已知的γ疱疹病毒不同，EfHV 基因组包含与 I 类和 II 类主要组织相容性抗原相似的编码序列。该病毒能够感染和复制人类、猴子、猫和猪细胞系。尽管我们在 28 只大褐蝙蝠中检测到 20 只携带 EfHV，但这些蝙蝠缺乏针对该病毒的中和抗体。
