Cell restriction factors, and not receptor compatibility, block Jamaican fruit bat (Artibeus jamaicensis) susceptibility to mucosal inoculation with SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant

Abstract

Abstract The ancestral sarbecovirus giving rise to SARS-CoV-2 is posited to have originated in bats. While SARS-CoV-2 causes asymptomatic to severe respiratory disease in humans, little is known about the biology, virus tropism, and immunity of SARS-CoV-2-like sarbecoviruses in bats. SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to infect multiple mammalian species, including various rodent species, non-human primates, and Egyptian fruit bats. Here, we investigate the Jamaican fruit bat (Artibeus jamaicensis) as a possible model species to study reservoir responses. SARS-CoV-2 can utilize Jamaican fruit bat ACE2 spike for entry in vitro. However, we find that SARS-CoV-2 Delta does not efficiently replicate in Jamaican fruit bats in vivo. We observe infectious virus in the lungs of only one animal on day 1 post inoculation and find no evidence for shedding or seroconversion. This is possibly due to host factors restricting virus egress after aborted replication. Furthermore, we observe no significant immune gene expression changes in the respiratory tract but do observe changes in the intestinal metabolome after inoculation. This suggests that, despite its broad host-range, SARS-CoV-2 is unable to infect all bat species and Jamaican fruit bats are not an appropriate model to study SARS-CoV-2 reservoir infection.