Molecular Phylogeny of Mobatviruses () in Myanmar and Vietnam

The discovery of highly divergent lineages of hantaviruses (family ) in shrews, moles, and bats of multiple species raises the possibility that non-rodent hosts may have played a significant role in their evolutionary history. To further investigate this prospect, total RNA was extracted from RNAlater-preserved lung tissues of 277 bats (representing five families, 14 genera and 40 species), captured in Myanmar and Vietnam during 2013⁻2016. Hantavirus RNA was detected in two of 15 black-bearded tomb bats () and two of 26 Pomona roundleaf bats () in Myanmar, and in three of six ashy leaf-nosed bats () in Vietnam. Pair-wise alignment and comparison of coding regions of the S, M, and L segments of hantaviruses from and bats revealed high nucleotide and amino acid sequence similarities to prototype Láibīn virus (LAIV) and Xuân Sơn virus (XSV), respectively. Phylogenetic analyses, generated by maximum-likelihood and Bayesian methods, showed a geographic clustering of LAIV strains from China and Myanmar, but not of XSV strains from China and Vietnam. These findings confirm that the black-bearded tomb bat is the natural reservoir of LAIV, and that more than one species of bats can host XSV.