{"doi":"10.1101/2025.10.08.679836","title":"<i>De novo</i> recovery of Ghana virus, an African bat Henipavirus, reveals differential tropism and attenuated pathogenicity compared to Nipah virus","abstract":"Summary Henipaviruses (HNVs) like Nipah (NiV) and Hendra (HeV) viruses represent severe zoonotic threats. Ghana virus (GhV), identified in 2012, is the only African bat henipavirus with a near-complete genome assembly. However, without isolates in culture, GhV biology, pathogenicity, and zoonotic potential remain poorly understood. Using reverse genetics, we recovered a full-length infectious clone of GhV at BSL-4 following rational reconstruction of its incomplete 3′ leader and modification of a non-canonical transcriptional initiation site. GhV demonstrated restricted receptor tropism (ephrin-B2 but not ephrin-B3) and distinct innate immune antagonism. Replication was attenuated in primary human cells, but was enhanced in bat cells. In Syrian golden hamsters, GhV infection caused no disease or mortality. Furthermore, a chimeric NiV encoding the GhV receptor-binding protein was completely attenuated in vivo , implicating ephrin-B3 receptor usage as a critical determinant of HNV pathogenesis. These findings elucidate GhV zoonotic potential and inform strategies for virus surveillance and control. Abstract Figure","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2025,"id":559282,"datarank":0.10397207708399181,"base_score":0.6931471805599453,"endowment":0.6931471805599453,"self_citation_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9403,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1081915,"name":"Olivier Escaffre","orcid":"0000-0003-0402-9698","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1273930,"name":"Rebecca A. Reis","orcid":"0000-0002-6118-1509","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":550015,"name":"Terry L. Juelich","orcid":"0000-0001-7034-2602","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":419296,"name":"Jennifer K. Smith","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":578670,"name":"Lihong Zhang","orcid":"0000-0002-0418-8106","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":105314,"name":"Birte Kalveram","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1460512,"name":"Axel Guzmán-Solís","orcid":"0000-0001-6878-206X","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1368998,"name":"Dariia Vyshenska","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1254300,"name":"William R. Klain","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":108342,"name":"Alexander L. Greninger","orcid":"0000-0002-7443-0527","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":105315,"name":"Alexander N. Freiberg","orcid":"0000-0001-8413-8960","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":110494,"name":"Benhur Lee","orcid":"0000-0003-0760-1709","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":552502,"name":"Griffin D. Haas","orcid":"0000-0002-2517-1071","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":81,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:55:34.849815Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}