Project description:Differential expression was determined in Calu-3 cells between mock infected and infection with either Human coronavirus EMC and SARS coronavirus at different times post infection. Calu-3 2B4 cells were infected with Human Coronavirus EMC 2012 (HCoV-EMC) or mock infected. Samples were collected 0, 3, 7, 12, 18 and 24 hpi. There are 3 mock and 3 infected replicates for each time point, except for 12 hpi for which there are only 2 infected replicates (one replicate did not pass RNA quality check). There were no mock sampes at 18 hpi, and therefore infected samples at 18 hpi were compared with mocks at 24 hpi. For direct comparison with SARS-CoV infected cells, raw data from HCoV-EMC experiments were quantile normalized together with the SARS-CoV dataset (GEO Series accession number GSE33267).
Project description:Bats are the most important natural reservoirs for a variety of emerging viruses that cause several illnesses in humans and other mammals. Increased viral shedding by bats is thought to be linked to an increased ability of many bat species to tolerate viral infection. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of COVID-19, is thought to have originated in bats, since viruses with high sequence similarity have been detected in bat feces. However, there is no robust in vitro model for assessing the SARS-CoV-2 infection in the bat GI tract. Here, we established gastrointestinal organoid cultures from Jamaican fruit bats (JFB, Artibeus jamaicensis), which replicated the characteristic morphology of the gastrointestinal epithelium and showed tissue specific gene expression patterns and cell differentiation. To analyze whether JFB intestinal epithelial cells are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, we performed in vitro infection experiments. Increased SARS-CoV-2 RNA was found in both cell lysates and supernatants from the infected organoids after 48 h, and sgRNA also was detected, indicating that the JFB intestinal epithelium supports limited viral replication. However, no infectious virus was released into the culture media, and no cytopathic effects were observed. Gene expression studies revealed a significant induction of type I interferon and inflammatory cytokine genes in response to active SARS-CoV-2 virus but not to TLR agonist treatment. Untargeted analysis of the organoid proteome using data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry (DIA-MS) revealed a significant increase in proteins and pathways associated with inflammatory signaling, cell turnover and repair, and SARS-CoV-2 infection. Collectively, our data suggest that primary intestinal epithelial cells from JFBs are largely resistant to SARS-CoV-2 infection and cell damage, likely because they are able to mount a strong antiviral interferon and regenerative response upon infection.