Viral Metagenomic Analysis of Bat Viromes. Viral Metagenomic Analysis of Bat Viromes

Bats are the natural host of various zoonotic viruses, such as coronavirus, Ebola, Nipah, and Hendra, that can cause serious illnesses like acute respiratory syndrome in humans and domestic animals. In recent years, it is believed that coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-2 may have jumped from bats to humans through intermediate hosts, leading to increasing interest in this mammal group. To understand the risk of interspecies transmission, it is important to study the viruses hosted by bats in different geographical regions. Metagenomic studies, which are becoming more popular, can reveal the cumulative diversity of organisms and environmental samples. High-Throughput Sequencing (HTS) is a technology that offers high yield and speed compared to traditional sequencing techniques and its application in metagenomic studies generates large amount of data. The data generated by viral metagenomic studies using HTS technology requires bioinformatics tools for accessibility, usability, and validation of the data. In this thesis study, oropharyngeal swab, rectal swab and fecal samples taken from bat species likely to be related to humans due to their location were subjected to nucleic acid isolation, enriched by applying whole genome amplification, sequenced with Shotgun sequencing technology and included in a practical bioinformatics workflow.