Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) emerged in 2002 to 2003 in southern China. The origin of its etiological agent, the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), remains elusive. Here we report that species of bats are a natural host of coronaviruses closely related to those responsible for the SARS outbreak. These viruses, termed SARS-like coronaviruses (SL-CoVs), display greater genetic variation than SARS-CoV isolated from humans or from civets. The human and civet isolates of SARS-CoV nestle phylogenetically within the spectrum of SL-CoVs, indicating that the virus responsible for the SARS outbreak was a member of this coronavirus group.
Publication types
- Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
- Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
MeSH terms
- Amino Acid Sequence
- Animals
- China / epidemiology
- Chiroptera / virology*
- Chlorocebus aethiops
- Communicable Diseases, Emerging
- Coronavirus* / classification
- Disease Outbreaks
- Disease Reservoirs*
- Genetic Variation
- Genome, Viral
- Henipavirus / classification
- Humans
- Molecular Sequence Data
- Mutation
- Phylogeny
- Polymerase Chain Reaction
- Sequence Analysis, DNA
- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / epidemiology
- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / transmission
- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / virology
- Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus* / classification
- Vero Cells
- Viverridae / virology