Motayo Babatunde O, Oluwasemowo Olukunle Oluwapamilerin, Akinduti Paul A
Department of Virology, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo, Nigeria.
Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Federal Medical Center, Abeokuta, Nigeria, Abeokuta, Ogun, Nigeria.
PeerJ. 2020 Nov 26;8:e10434. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10434. eCollection 2020.
Bats have been shown to serve as reservoir host of various viral agents including coronaviruses. They have also been associated with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. This has made them an all important agent for CoV evolution and transmission. Our objective in this study was to investigate the dispersal, phylogenomics and evolution of betacoronavirus (βCoV) among African bats. We retrieved sequence data from established databases such as GenBank and Virus Pathogen Resource, covering the partial RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) gene of bat coronaviruses from eight African, three Asian, five European, two South American countries and Australia. We analyzed for phylogeographic information relating to genetic diversity and evolutionary dynamics. Our study revealed that majority of the African strains fell within Norbecovirus subgenera, with an evolutionary rate of 1.301 × 10, HPD (1.064 × 10-1.434 × 10) subs/site/year. The African strains diversified into three main subgenera, , and . The time to most common recent ancestor for strains was 1973, and 2007, for the African strains. There was evidence of inter species transmission of among bats in Cameroun and DRC. Phlylogeography showed that there were inter-continental spread of Bt-CoV from Europe, China and Hong Kong into Central and Southern Africa, highlighting the possibility of long distance transmission. Our study has elucidated the possible evolutionary origins of βCoV among African bats; we therefore advocate for broader studies of whole genome sequences of BtCoV to further understand the drivers for their emergence and zoonotic spillovers into human population.
蝙蝠已被证明是包括冠状病毒在内的多种病毒病原体的宿主。它们还与新型冠状病毒SARS-CoV-2有关。这使它们成为冠状病毒进化和传播的重要因素。我们在本研究中的目的是调查非洲蝙蝠中β冠状病毒（βCoV）的传播、系统基因组学和进化。我们从GenBank和病毒病原体资源等已建立的数据库中检索序列数据，涵盖来自八个非洲国家、三个亚洲国家、五个欧洲国家、两个南美国家和澳大利亚的蝙蝠冠状病毒的部分RNA依赖性RNA聚合酶（RdRP）基因。我们分析了与遗传多样性和进化动态相关的系统地理学信息。我们的研究表明，大多数非洲毒株属于诺贝病毒亚属，进化速率为1.301×10，HPD（1.064×10 - 1.434×10）次/位点/年。非洲毒株分为三个主要亚属，即 、 和 。 毒株最近共同祖先的时间为1973年，非洲 毒株为2007年。有证据表明喀麦隆和刚果民主共和国的蝙蝠之间存在 种间传播。系统地理学表明，Bt-CoV从欧洲、中国和香港向中非和南非有洲际传播，突出了远距离传播的可能性。我们的研究阐明了非洲蝙蝠中βCoV可能的进化起源；因此，我们主张对BtCoV的全基因组序列进行更广泛的研究，以进一步了解其出现的驱动因素以及向人类群体的人畜共患病溢出情况。
