Abstract:
Coronaviruses (CoV) are divided into the genera α-CoVs, β-CoVs, γ-CoVs and δ-CoVs.
Of these, α-CoVs and β-CoVs are solely capable of causing infections in humans, resulting in mild
to severe respiratory symptoms. Bats have been identified as natural reservoir hosts for CoVs be longing to these two genera. Consequently, research on bat populations, CoV prevalence in bats
and genetic characterization of bat CoVs is of special interest to investigate the potential transmis sion risks. We present the genome sequence of a novel α-CoV strain detected in rectal swab samples
of Miniopterus fuliginosus bats from a colony in the Wavul Galge cave (Koslanda, Sri Lanka). The
novel strain is highly similar to Miniopterus bat coronavirus 1, an α-CoV located in the subgenus
of Minunacoviruses. Phylogenetic reconstruction revealed a high identity of the novel strain to
other α-CoVs derived from Miniopterus bats, while human-pathogenic α-CoV strains like HCoV-
229E and HCoV-NL63 were more distantly related. Comparison with selected bat-related and hu man-pathogenic strains of the β-CoV genus showed low identities of ~40%. Analyses of the different
genes on nucleotide and amino acid level revealed that the non-structural ORF1a/1b are more con served among α-CoVs and β-CoVs, while there are higher variations in the structural proteins
known to be important for host specificity. The novel strain was named batCoV/Min Ful/2018/SriLanka and had a prevalence of 50% (66/130) in rectal swab samples and 58% (61/104) in
feces samples that were collected from Miniopterus bats in Wavul Galge cave. Based on the differ ences between strain batCoV/MinFul/2018/SriLanka and human-pathogenic α-CoVs and β-CoVs,
we conclude that there is a rather low transmission risk to humans. Further studies in the Wavul
Galge cave and at other locations in Sri Lanka will give more detailed information about the prev alence of this virus.
