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. 2021 May;68(3):271-276.
doi: 10.1111/zph.12808. Epub 2021 Jan 23.

Detection of Trypanosoma cruzi in the saliva of diverse neotropical bats

Laura M Bergner  1   2 , Daniel J Becker  3 , Carlos Tello  4   5 , Jorge E Carrera  6   7 , Daniel G Streicker  1   2
Affiliations

Detection of Trypanosoma cruzi in the saliva of diverse neotropical bats

Laura M Bergner et al. Zoonoses Public Health. 2021 May.

Abstract

Trypanosoma cruzi is widely reported in bats, yet transmission routes remain unclear. We present evidence from metagenomic sequence data that T. cruzi occurs in the saliva of diverse Neotropical bats. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that the bat-associated T. cruzi sequences described here formed part of a bat-specific clade, suggesting an independent transmission cycle. Our results highlight the value in repurposing metagenomic data generated for viral discovery to reveal insights into the biology of other parasites. Evaluating whether the presence of T. cruzi in the saliva of two hematophagous bat species represents an ecological route for zoonotic transmission of Chagas disease is an interesting avenue for future research.

Keywords: Desmodus rotundus; Chiroptera; protozoa; shotgun metagenomics; wildlife; zoonoses.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Sampling of bats in Peru. Circles show the proportion of individuals of a given bat genus captured at each site, and the total sample size is listed beside the site name. Individuals of the same species were combined across sites into one pool for metagenomic sequencing
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Trypanosoma cruzi cytB phylogeny. The phylogeny was constructed in MrBayes based on a 476bp alignment of 71 Trypanosoma cytochrome B sequences, rooted on Trypanosoma dionisii (Genbank accession FJ900249). The TcI lineage and the bat sub‐clade are highlighted in gold and blue, respectively, and expanded for further detail
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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