Enhanced replication fitness of MERS-CoV clade B over clade A strains in camelids explains the dominance of clade B strains in the Arabian Peninsula.

ABSTRACT: ABSTRACTMiddle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) continues infecting humans and dromedary camels. While MERS-CoV strains from the Middle East region are subdivided into two clades (A and B), all the contemporary epidemic viruses belong to clade B. Thus, MERS-CoV clade B strains may display adaptive advantages over clade A in humans and/or reservoir hosts. To test this hypothesis in vivo, we compared an early epidemic clade A strain (EMC/2012) with a clade B strain (Jordan-1/2015) in an alpaca model monitoring virological and immunological parameters. Further, the Jordan-1/2015 strain has a partial amino acid (aa) deletion in the double-stranded (ds) RNA binding motif of the open reading frame ORF4a protein. Animals inoculated with the Jordan-1/2015 variant had

SUBMITTER: Te N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8812806 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature