Novel SARS-like Betacoronaviruses in Bats, China, 2011

Li Yang¹, Zhiqiang Wu¹, Xianwen Ren¹, Fan Yang¹, Guimei He, Junpeng Zhang, Jie Dong, Lilian Sun, Yafang Zhu, Jiang Du, Fan Yang, Shuyi Zhang, and Qi Jin

Author affiliations: Ministry of Health Key Laboratory of Systems Biology of Pathogens, Beijing, China (L. Yang, Z. Wu, X. Ren, F. Yang, J. Dong, L. Sun, Y. Zhu, J. Du, Q. Jin); Institute of Pathogen Biology, Beijing (L. Yang, Z. Wu, X. Ren, F. Yang, J. Dong, L. Sun, Y. Zhu, J. Du, Q. Jin); East China Normal University, Shanghai, China (G. He, J. Zhang, S. Zhang)

Abstract

To clarify the evolutionary relationships among betavoronaviruses that infect bats, we analyzed samples collected during 2010–2011 from 14 insectivorous bat species in China. We identified complete genomes of 2 novel betacoronaviruses in Rhinolophus pusillus and Chaerephon plicata bats, which showed close genetic relationships with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronaviruses.

The 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was caused by a novel betacoronavirus and rapidly spread globally, causing ≈8,000 cases and nearly 900 deaths (1,2). In June 2012, a novel betacoronavirus (called human coronavirus EMC [HCoV-EMC]) also was isolated from the sputum of a patient from Saudi Arabia who died of pneumonia and renal failure (3). Similar viruses were detected in 2 additional patients who had severe pneumonia in Qatar in September 2012 and in Saudi Arabia in November 2012 (4,5). The clinical picture was remarkably similar to that of SARS and illustrates the epidemic potential of a novel coronavirus (CoV) to threaten global health. SARS-CoVs and HCoV-EMC were suspected of spreading from bats to humans because these CoVs were most closely related to bat CoVs (1,4). To clarify the evolutionary relationships among betavoronaviruses that infect bats, we analyzed samples collected during 2010–2011 from 14 insectivorous bat species common in 8 provinces in China.