Molecular, ecological, and behavioral drivers of the bat-virus relationship

Victoria Gonzalez; Arinjay Banerjee

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104779

Molecular, ecological, and behavioral drivers of the bat-virus relationship

iScience. 2022 Aug 19;25(8):104779. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104779. Epub 2022 Jul 20.

Authors

Victoria Gonzalez^{1

2}, Arinjay Banerjee^{1

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E3, Canada.
² Department of Veterinary Microbiology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B4, Canada.
³ Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada.
⁴ Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada.

Abstract

Bats perform important ecological roles in our ecosystem. However, recent studies have demonstrated that bats are reservoirs of emerging viruses that have spilled over into humans and agricultural animals to cause severe diseases. These viruses include Hendra and Nipah paramyxoviruses, Ebola and Marburg filoviruses, and coronaviruses that are closely related to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and the recently emerged SARS-CoV-2. Intriguingly, bats that are naturally or experimentally infected with these viruses do not show clinical signs of disease. Here we have reviewed ecological, behavioral, and molecular factors that may influence the ability of bats to harbor viruses. We have summarized known zoonotic potential of bat-borne viruses and stress on the need for further studies to better understand the evolutionary relationship between bats and their viruses, along with discovering the intrinsic and external factors that facilitate the successful spillover of viruses from bats.

Keywords: Evolutionary biology; Virology.

Publication types

Review