Kuzeybatı ve Orta Anadolu'daki yarasaların dışkı örneklerinde virom içeriğinin belirlenmesi

Bats carry various virus families that infect vertebrates, invertebrates, plant, fungi, or bacteria. Viruses may be shed via several routes and transmitted to humans. In current literature, there is insufficient information about bat-related viruses in Türkiye. In this study, feces of bats were collected from three different locations in the Northwest and Central Anatolia of Türkiye and investigated via metagenomics approach to profile viruses shed in feces. Then, virome content of bats were identified using three different bioinformatics approaches in the analysis of sequencing data. According to our results, different virus families could be detected by different bioinformatics approach and the virome content of bat feces was affected by bat species in terms of dietary choice, microbiome, and interaction with other animals. In Cilingoz Cave, virus families that infect bacteria, vertebrates, invertebrates, plant, and algae were detected. In Sefer Yitigi Cave, virus families that infect, bacteria, invertebrates, plant, and fungi were detected. In Sarihidir Cave, virus families that infect bacteria, vertebrates, invertebrates, archaea, and fungi were detected. While the highest viral diversity was detected in Sefer Yitigi Cave by BLAST before and after de novo assembly, the highest viral diversity was detected in Sarihidir Tunnel by Kraken 2. Overall, bacteriophages were the most dominant virus families by each bioinformatics approach for all regions. The sequence reads that hit virus families infecting vertebrates were investigated further. It was found that none of them carry risk for zoonosis. Such studies are crucial for monitoring emerging viruses.