Identification and genetic characterization of five novel bat coronaviruses from Yunnan, China.

Identification and genetic characterization of five novel bat coronaviruses from Yunnan, China.

Publication date: Oct 12, 2024

Coronaviruses (CoVs) represent a serious threat to human health and have become a major transmissible, endemic, and causative pathogen in humans; they represent a major health concern, given their ability to cause infectious diseases. Bats are natural hosts for diverse viruses. Many transmission events of CoVs and identification of multiple novel CoVs in bats has increased attention towards their capacity to serve as hosts for zoonotic viruses. In this study, 61 bats from Yunnan Province were analyzed, identifying seven CoVs, including three α- and two β-CoVs with full-genome sequences. Among the five identified alpha-CoVs, four belong to the Decacovirus subgenus and one to the Minunacovirus subgenus. Two beta-CoVs were also identified, both belonging to the Sarbecovirus subgenus. The genetic structures revealed similarities to known strains such as HKU10 and SARS-CoV-2, along with novel findings such as the Minunacovirus subgenus CoV YJ3c/f and unique ORF patterns. Our results demonstrated that strain JCC9 has a unique recombination pattern and shows a higher binding affinity to civet and pangolin ACE2 receptors, then the HpJC8xc strain transmits and recombines between hosts (bats), indicating a potential risk of crossing the interspecies barrier and infecting other animals. The CoVs detected in the bats studied in this research exhibit high diversity. Genomic analysis revealed that CoVs in bats undergo frequent recombination events. Furthermore, recombination patterns and evolutionary analyses suggest that alpha-CoVs are more prone to cross-species transmission across different bat families/genera, whereas beta-CoVs demonstrate host specificity and tend to co-evolve with their bat hosts. Our finding suggest that bats, as hosts of CoVs, be constantly monitored to prevent outbreaks of new infections caused by viruses passing across interspecies barriers, and consequently, viral diseases in humans or livestock.

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Concepts Keywords
Affinity Animals
Bat Bats
Coronaviruses Characterization
Hpjc8xc China
Pangolin Chiroptera
Coronavirus
Coronavirus Infections
Coronaviruses
Genome, Viral
Phylogeny
Transmission
Yunnan

Semantics

Type Source Name
disease IDO pathogen
disease MESH infectious diseases
disease IDO host
disease MESH infections
disease MESH viral diseases
pathway REACTOME Reproduction
drug DRUGBANK Coenzyme M
disease MESH COVID 19
drug DRUGBANK Nonoxynol-9
disease MESH emerging infectious diseases
drug DRUGBANK Ademetionine
disease IDO infection
disease IDO protein
drug DRUGBANK Esomeprazole
drug DRUGBANK Fenamole
drug DRUGBANK Pentaerythritol tetranitrate
disease MESH zoonotic spillover
drug DRUGBANK Prazosin
disease MESH Coronavirus infections
disease IDO infectivity
disease IDO cell

Original Article

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