Bats Are Natural Reservoirs of SARS-Like Coronaviruses (original) (raw)
ADS
;
- Shi, Zhengli ;
- Yu, Meng ;
- Ren, Wuze ;
- Smith, Craig ;
- Epstein, Jonathan H. ;
- Wang, Hanzhong ;
- Crameri, Gary ;
- Hu, Zhihong ;
- Zhang, Huajun ;
- Zhang, Jianhong ;
- McEachern, Jennifer ;
- Field, Hume ;
- Daszak, Peter ;
- Eaton, Bryan T. ;
- Zhang, Shuyi ;
- Wang, Lin-Fa
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) emerged in 2002 to 2003 in southern China. The origin of its etiological agent, the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoVs), 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-CoV), 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:
Science
Pub Date:
October 2005
DOI:
Bibcode:
Keywords:
- VIROLOGY