Magboi virus (MGBV) is a novel, bat-borne
Orthohantavirus
''Orthohantavirus'' is a genus of single-stranded, enveloped, negative-sense RNA viruses in the family ''Hantaviridae'' within the order ''Bunyavirales''. Members of this genus may be called orthohantaviruses or simply hantaviruses.
Orthohantavi ...
discovered in a
slit-faced bat
''Nycteris'' comprises a genus of bats commonly called slit-faced or hollow-faced bats. They are grouped in the family Nycteridae. The bats are found in East Malaysia, Indonesia, and many parts of Africa.
Description
They are small bats, from i ...
trapped near the Magboi Stream in eastern
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...
in 2011. It is a single-stranded,
negative sense,
RNA virus
An RNA virus is a virusother than a retrovirusthat has ribonucleic acid (RNA) as its genetic material. The nucleic acid is usually single-stranded RNA ( ssRNA) but it may be double-stranded (dsRNA). Notable human diseases caused by RNA viruses ...
in the
Bunyavirales
''Bunyavirales'' is an order of segmented negative-strand RNA viruses with mainly tripartite genomes. Member viruses infect arthropods, plants, protozoans, and vertebrates. It is the only order in the class ''Ellioviricetes''. The name ''Bunyavir ...
order.
Molecular virology
The discovery represented the first time a hantavirus was detected in a bat, although bats as a reservoir for hantavirus had been long suspected. On the basis of a maximum-likelihood
phylogenetic tree
A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spec ...
, the sequence isolated from the Magboi River bat does not cluster with rodent-associated hantaviruses but groups with those found in shrews and moles. This raises the question of the real hantavirus host range. Bats are
already known to harbor a broad variety of emerging pathogens, including other bunyaviruses. Their ability to fly and social life history enable efficient pathogen maintenance, evolution, and spread.
[Murphy WJ, Eizirik E, Johnson WE, Zhang YP, Ryder OA, O’Brien SJ Molecular phylogenetics and the origins of placental mammals. Nature. 2001;409:614–8. doi: 10.1038/35054550. ubMed ross Ref/ref>
]
See also
*Sangassou virus
''Sangassou orthohantavirus'' (SANGV) is single-stranded, negative-sense RNA virus species of the genus ''Orthohantavirus'' in the ''Bunyavirales'' order. It was first isolated in an African wood mouse ('' Hylomyscus simus'') in the forest in Gu ...
*Bat-borne virus
The bat virome is the group of viruses associated with bats. Bats host a diverse array of viruses, including all seven types described by the Baltimore classification system: (I) double-stranded DNA viruses; (II) single-stranded DNA viruses; ...
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q16985075
Viral diseases
Hantaviridae
Hemorrhagic fevers