Characterizing and Evaluating the Zoonotic Potential of Novel Viruses Discovered in Vampire Bats.

ABSTRACT: The contemporary surge in metagenomic sequencing has transformed knowledge of viral diversity in wildlife. However, evaluating which newly discovered viruses pose sufficient risk of infecting humans to merit detailed laboratory characterization and surveillance remains largely speculative. Machine learning algorithms have been developed to address this imbalance by ranking the relative likelihood of human infection based on viral genome sequences, but are not yet routinely applied to viruses at the time of their discovery. Here, we characterized viral genomes detected through metagenomic sequencing of feces and saliva from common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) and used these data as a case study in evaluating zoonotic potential using molecular sequencing data. Of 58 detected viral

SUBMITTER: Bergner LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7914986 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature