Bats are an abundant mammalian species and are a major reservoir of viral zoonosis. Since bats predate humans, we predict that they have developed mechanisms to successfully coexist with viral pathogens in the absence of disease development.

Fundamental studies in this area could reveal novel antiviral strategies used by these species to combat human viral pathogens. This study is focused on elucidating the bat repertoire of intrinsic antiviral factors and their activity and mode of action of novel factors against retroviruses and other viral pathogens.

As a result of funding from Perpetual Trustees we were able to carry out studies to discover and characterise versions of the novel intrinsic defense factor, APOBEC3, found in the Pteropus alecto fruit bat.

This could have benefits to HIV-infected individuals in the long-term providing clues for the development of novel therapies.

Publications

2018

• Differential evolution of antiretroviral restriction factors in pteropid bats as revealed by APOBEC3 gene complexity.
  Hayward JA, Tachedjian M, Cui J, Cheng AZ, Johnson A, Baker M, Harris RS, Wang LF, Tachedjian G
  Mol Biol Evol. 2018 Mar; 35(7):1626–1637