Deep RNA sequencing reveals complex transcriptional landscape of a bat adenovirus

Bat adenoviruses are a group of recently identified adenoviruses (AdVs) which are highly prevalent in bats yet share low similarity to known AdVs from other species. In this study, deep RNA sequencing was used to analyze the transcriptome at five time points following the infection of a bat AdV in a kidney cell line derived from a myotis bat species. Evidence of AdV replication was observed with the proportion of viral RNAs ranging from 0.01% at 6 h to 1.3% at 18 h. Further analysis of viral temporal gene expression revealed three replication stages, the early-stage genes encoding mainly host interaction proteins, the intermediate-stage genes for the DNA replication and assembly proteins, and the late-stage genes for most structural proteins. Several bat AdV genes were expressed at stages that differed from those of their counterpart genes previously reported for human AdV type 2. In addition, single-base resolution splice sites of several genes and promoter regions of all 30 viral genes were fully determined. Simultaneously, the temporal cellular gene expression profiles were identified. The most overrepresented functional categories of the differentially expressed genes were related to cellular immune response, transcription, translation, and DNA replication and repair. Taken together, the deep RNA sequencing provided a global, transcriptional profile of the novel bat AdV and the virus-host interactions which will be useful for the understanding and investigation of AdV replication, pathogenesis, and specific virus-bat interactions in future research.