Chennai: A new study investigated how the Ebola virus adapts to both bat and human cells. It assessed changes in mutation rates and the structure of Ebola virus populations repeatedly in both bat and human cell lines using an ultra-deep genetic sequencing.
The research team was led by Alex Bukreyev, a UTMB virologist in the departments of pathology and microbiology and immunology, working with the team of Raul Andino, University of California, San Francisco.
“We identified a number of meaningful differences in how the Ebola virus evolves when placed in a human cell line relative to a bat cell line,” Bukreyev said.
“For instance, the RNA editing enzyme called ADAR within bat cells play a greater role in the replication and evolution of the Ebola virus than do such enzymes in human cells. We found that the envelope protein of Ebola virus undergoes a drastic increase in certain mutations within bat cells, but this was not found in human cells. This study identifies a novel mechanism by which Ebola virus is likely to evolve in bats.”
The study suggests that the Ebola virus and bats can live together harmoniously because of the bat cell’s ability to induce changes in the virus that make it less capable of harm.