Evidence for reassortment of highly divergent novel rotaviruses from bats in Cameroon , 2 without

27 Bats are an important reservoir for pathogenic human respiratory and hemorrhagic viruses but 28 only little is known about bat viruses causing gastroenteritis in humans, including rotavirus A 29 strains (RVA). Only three RVA strains have been reported in bats in Kenya (straw-colored 30 fruit bat) and in China (lesser horseshoe and a stoliczka’s trident bat), being highly divergent 31 from each other. To further elucidate the potential of bat RVAs to cause gastroenteritis in 32 humans we started by investigating the genetic diversity of RVAs in fecal samples from 87 33 straw-colored fruit bats living in close contact with humans in Cameroon using 34 metagenomics. Five samples contained significant numbers of RVA Illumina reads, sufficient 35 to obtain their (near) complete genomes. A single RVA strain showed a close phylogenetic 36 relationship with the Kenyan bat RVA strain in six gene segments, including VP7 (G25), 37 whereas the other gene segments represented novel genotypes as ratified by the RCWG. The 38 4 other RVA strains were highly divergent from known strains (but very similar among each 39 other) possessing all novel genotypes. Only the VP7 and VP4 genes showed a significant 40 variability representing multiple novel G and P genotypes, indicating the frequent occurrence 41 of reassortment events. 42 Comparing these bat RVA strains with currently used human RVA screening primers 43 indicated that several of the novel VP7 and VP4 segments would not be detected in routine 44 epidemiological screening studies. Therefore, novel VP6 based screening primers matching 45 both human and bat RVAs were developed and used to screen samples from 25 infants with 46 gastroenteritis living in close proximity with the studied bat population. Although RVA 47 infections were identified in 36% of the infants, Sanger sequencing did not indicate evidence 48 of interspecies transmissions. 49 This study identified multiple novel bat RVA strains, but further epidemiological studies in 50 humans will have to assess if these viruses have the potential to cause gastroenteritis in 51 humans. 52 53