Host cell tropism mediated by Australian bat lyssavirus envelope glycoproteins

•Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV) can cause fatal encephalitis in humans.•Two ABLV variants exist, one in fruit bats and another in insectivorous bats.•ABLV has also infected horses.•The ABLV receptor is conserved but not ubiquitous among mammalian cell lines.•The two ABLV variants utilize alternate receptors for entry.

Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV) is a rhabdovirus of the lyssavirus genus capable of causing fatal rabies-like encephalitis in humans. There are two variants of ABLV, one circulating in pteropid fruit bats and another in insectivorous bats. Three fatal human cases of ABLV infection have been reported with the third case in 2013. Importantly, two equine cases also arose in 2013; the first occurrence of ABLV in a species other than bats or humans. We examined the host cell entry of ABLV, characterizing its tropism and exploring its cross-species transmission potential using maxGFP-encoding recombinant vesicular stomatitis viruses that express ABLV G glycoproteins. Results indicate that the ABLV receptor(s) is conserved but not ubiquitous among mammalian cell lines and that the two ABLV variants can utilize alternate receptors for entry. Proposed rabies virus receptors were not sufficient to permit ABLV entry into resistant cells, suggesting that ABLV utilizes an unknown alternative receptor(s).