Surveying the Vampire Bat (Desmodus rotundus) Serum Proteome: A Resource for Identifying Immunological Proteins and Detecting Pathogens

Bats
are increasingly studied as model systems for longevity and
as natural hosts for some virulent viruses. Yet the ability to characterize
immune mechanisms of viral tolerance and to quantify infection dynamics
in wild bats is often limited by small sample volumes and few species-specific
reagents. Here, we demonstrate how proteomics can overcome these limitations
by using data-independent acquisition-based shotgun proteomics to
survey the serum proteome of 17 vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) from Belize. Using just 2 μL of sample and relatively short
separations of undepleted serum digests, we identified 361 proteins
across 5 orders of magnitude. Levels of immunological proteins in
vampire bat serum were then compared to human plasma via published
databases. Of particular interest were antiviral and antibacterial
components, circulating 20S proteasome complex and proteins involved
in redox activity. Lastly, we used known virus proteomes to putatively
identify Rh186 from Macacine herpesvirus 3 and ORF1a
from Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus, indicating
that mass spectrometry-based techniques show promise for pathogen
detection. Overall, these results can be used to design targeted mass-spectrometry
assays to quantify immunological markers and detect pathogens. More
broadly, our findings also highlight the application of proteomics
in advancing wildlife immunology and pathogen surveillance.

蝙蝠作为长寿模型系统以及某些烈性病毒的天然宿主，其研究日益增多。然而，由于样本量有限和物种特异性试剂缺乏，对蝙蝠病毒耐受的免疫机制进行特征化以及量化野蝙蝠感染动态的能力往往受限。在本研究中，我们展示了蛋白质组学如何通过利用基于数据无关采集的快速蛋白质组学技术，克服这些限制，对来自伯利兹的17只吸血蝙蝠（Desmodus rotundus）的血清蛋白质组进行了调查。通过仅使用2微升的样本和相对较短的未富集血清消化分离，我们鉴定了跨越五个数量级的361种蛋白质。随后，我们将吸血蝙蝠血清中免疫蛋白的水平与人类血浆通过已发表的数据库进行了比较。尤其是抗病毒和抗菌成分、循环的20S蛋白酶体复合物以及参与氧化还原活动的蛋白质引起了我们的关注。最后，我们利用已知的病毒蛋白质组，推测性地识别了来自Macacine疱疹病毒3的Rh186和来自中东呼吸综合征相关冠状病毒的ORF1a，这表明基于质谱技术的病原体检测具有广阔的前景。总体而言，这些结果可用于设计针对的质谱分析，以量化免疫标志物和检测病原体。更广泛地，我们的发现也突出了蛋白质组学在推进野生动物免疫学和病原体监测中的应用。