High host specificity of alphacoronaviruses in Nearctic, insectivorous bats
Bats are reservoir hosts for a number of coronaviruses, some of which may pose spillover risks for humans and other animals. We detected two alphacoronaviruses in big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) and little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus) in Ontario, Canada. These viruses are closely related to other coronaviruses circulating in bats in North America and also distantly related to human and swine coronaviruses. We found high similarity in the receptor-binding domain (RBD) in viruses derived from the same species of bat, but markedly lower in those derived from other species. We also functionally characterized the accessory protein ORF3 finding that ORF3 inhibited both IFNβ production and signaling. Our study provides insights into coronavirus diversity in bats in a previously under-sampled region. This work provides a baseline for in-depth surveillance to characterize the transmission dynamics of endemic coronaviruses in free-ranging wildlife, and for exploring the evolutionary relationships between coronaviruses and their hosts.
Authors
- Juliette Blais-Savoie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3678-5490)
- Giulia Gallo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3269-142X)
- Vikram Misra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6818-7156)
- Arkadeb Bhuinya (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7733-0687)
- Jonathon D. Kotwa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6424-3947)
- Christina M. Davy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4011-6828)
- Oliver Lung (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0494-1620)
- Lily Yip (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7387-0387)
- Samira Mubareka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5012-2311)
- Arinjay Banerjee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2821-8357)
- Emily Chien
- Finlay Maguire (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1203-9514)
- Winfield Yim
- Valerie von Zuben (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5601-0388)
- Pahul Singh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2199-6025)
- Hsien-Yao Chee
- Qiang Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1508-7172)
- Dalan Bailey
- Anil Kumar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9551-6493)
- Aaron Hou
- Karel Wouters
Institutions
- The Pirbright Institute (GB)
- Dalhousie University (CA)
- Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CA)
- Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (CA)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- University of Saskatchewan (CA)
- Sunnybrook Hospital (CA)
- Sunnybrook Research Institute
- University of Manitoba (CA)
- Trent University (CA)
- Carleton University (CA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Viruses
- Published
- 2025-04-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s44298-025-00115-y
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Bat Biology and Ecology Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 9.08
Funders
- Government of Ontario
- Innovation Saskatchewan
- Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Institute of Infection and Immunity