Comprehensive Infectome Analysis Reveals Diverse Infectious Agents with Zoonotic Potential in Wildlife

• Published in: bioRxiv 2025-01
• Main Authors: Hou, Xin, Wang, Jing, Da-Xi, Wang, Chen, Ye, Xin-Xin, Li, Wei-Chen, Wu, Shi-Jia, Le, Shi-Qiang, Mei, Han-Lin, Liu, Feng, Yun, Li-Fen, Yang, Pei-Bo Shi, Zi-Rui Ren, Yang, Lin, Hai-Jian He, Wang-Jie, Song, Chen, Jie, Meng-Meng, Zhu, Zhi-Wen, Jiang, Xing-Mei, Li, Guo, Deyin, Holmes, Edward C, Zi-Qing Deng, Shi, Mang, Su, Shuo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Comparative analysis; Coronaviruses; Disease transmission; Host-pathogen interactions; Microbiology; New genera; Pathogens; Public health; Transcriptomics; Wildlife; Zoonoses
• ISSN: 2692-8205
• DOI: 10.1101/2025.01.09.632079

Understanding wildlife-pathogen interactions is crucial for mitigating zoonotic risk. Through meta-transcriptomic sequencing we profiled the infectomes of 1,922 samples from 67 mammalian species across China, uncovering a remarkable diversity of viral, bacterial, fungal, and parasitic pathogens. Of the 195 pathogens identified, 62 were novel, including a bi-segmented coronavirus in diseased lesser pandas, which we propose represents a new genus - Zetacoronavirus. The orders Carnivora and Rodentia exhibited the highest pathogen diversity and were implicated in numerous host-jumping events. Comparative analysis of diseased versus healthy animals revealed a trend of higher pathogen loads in the former, with possible differences in tissue tropisms. In total, 48 zoonotic and 17 epizootic pathogens were identified, with frequent cross-species transmission, emphasizing the potential for emerging public health threats. This study highlights the urgent need for wildlife pathogen surveillance to inform proactive disease management strategies.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.