Identification of diverse alphacoronaviruses and genomic characterization of a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome-like coronavirus from bats in China.

ABSTRACT:

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Although many severe acute respiratory syndrome-like coronaviruses (SARS-like CoVs) have been identified in bats in China, Europe, and Africa, most have a genetic organization significantly distinct from human/civet SARS CoVs in the receptor-binding domain (RBD), which mediates receptor binding and determines the host spectrum, resulting in their failure to cause human infections and making them unlikely progenitors of human/civet SARS CoVs. Here, a viral metagenomic analysis of 268 bat rectal swabs collected from four counties in Yunnan Province has identified hundreds of sequences relating to alpha- and betacoronaviruses. Phylogenetic analysis based on a conserved region of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene revealed that alphacoronaviruses had diversities with some

SUBMITTER: He B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4054348 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature