Trudy M. Wassenaar and Ying Zou
Lett Appl Microbiol. 2020 Feb 14. doi: 10.1111/lam.13285. [Epub ahead of print]
Abstract
The current outbreak of a novel SARS‐like coronavirus, 2019_nCoV, illustrated difficulties in identifying a novel coronavirus and its natural host, as the coding sequences of various Betacoronavirus species can be highly diverse. By means of whole‐genome sequence comparisons, we demonstrate that the non‐coding flanks of the viral genome can be used to correctly separate the recognized four betacoronavirus subspecies. The conservation would be sufficient to define target sequences that could, in theory, classify novel virus species into their subspecies. Only 253 upstream non‐coding sequences of Sarbecovirus are sufficient to identify genetic similarities between species of this subgenus. Further, it was investigated which bat species have commercial value in China, and would thus likely be handled for trading purposes. A number of coronavirus genomes have been published that were obtained from such bat species. These bats are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and their handling poses a potential risk to cause zoonotic coronavirus epidemics.
Keywords Sarbecovirus ; Coronavirus; Traditional Chinese Medicine; bats; epidemic; whole-genome comparison; zoonosis
Read the publication here: https://sfamjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/lam.13285
