tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Cell
. 2021 Jun 9;S0092-8674(21)00709-1.
doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.06.008. Online ahead of print.
Identification of novel bat coronaviruses sheds light on the evolutionary origins of SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses
Hong Zhou[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Jingkai Ji[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Xing Chen[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Yuhai Bi[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Juan Li[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Qihui Wang[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Tao Hu[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Hao Song[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Runchu Zhao[SUP] 5 [/SUP], Yanhua Chen[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Mingxue Cui[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Yanyan Zhang[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Alice C Hughes[SUP] 6 [/SUP], Edward C Holmes[SUP] 7 [/SUP], Weifeng Shi[SUP] 8 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
Despite the discovery of animal coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2, the evolutionary origins of this virus are elusive. We describe a meta-transcriptomic study of 411 bat samples collected from a small geographical region in Yunnan province, China, between May 2019 and November 2020. We identified 24 full-length coronavirus genomes, including four novel SARS-CoV-2-related and three SARS-CoV-related viruses. Rhinolophus pusillus virus RpYN06 was the closest relative of SARS-CoV-2 in most of the genome, although it possessed a more divergent spike gene. The other three SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses carried a genetically distinct spike gene that could weakly bind to the hACE2 receptor in vitro. Ecological modeling predicted the co-existence of up to 23 Rhinolophus bat species, with the largest contiguous hotspots extending from South Laos and Vietnam to southern China. Our study highlights the remarkable diversity of bat coronaviruses at the local scale, including close relatives of both SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV.
Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; bats; coronavirus; evolution; phylogeny; porcine epidemic diarrhea virus; spike protein; swine acute diarrhea syndrome.
. 2021 Jun 9;S0092-8674(21)00709-1.
doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.06.008. Online ahead of print.
Identification of novel bat coronaviruses sheds light on the evolutionary origins of SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses
Hong Zhou[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Jingkai Ji[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Xing Chen[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Yuhai Bi[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Juan Li[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Qihui Wang[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Tao Hu[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Hao Song[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Runchu Zhao[SUP] 5 [/SUP], Yanhua Chen[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Mingxue Cui[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Yanyan Zhang[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Alice C Hughes[SUP] 6 [/SUP], Edward C Holmes[SUP] 7 [/SUP], Weifeng Shi[SUP] 8 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 34147139
- DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.06.008
Abstract
Despite the discovery of animal coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2, the evolutionary origins of this virus are elusive. We describe a meta-transcriptomic study of 411 bat samples collected from a small geographical region in Yunnan province, China, between May 2019 and November 2020. We identified 24 full-length coronavirus genomes, including four novel SARS-CoV-2-related and three SARS-CoV-related viruses. Rhinolophus pusillus virus RpYN06 was the closest relative of SARS-CoV-2 in most of the genome, although it possessed a more divergent spike gene. The other three SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses carried a genetically distinct spike gene that could weakly bind to the hACE2 receptor in vitro. Ecological modeling predicted the co-existence of up to 23 Rhinolophus bat species, with the largest contiguous hotspots extending from South Laos and Vietnam to southern China. Our study highlights the remarkable diversity of bat coronaviruses at the local scale, including close relatives of both SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV.
Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; bats; coronavirus; evolution; phylogeny; porcine epidemic diarrhea virus; spike protein; swine acute diarrhea syndrome.