Bats Are Natural Reservoirs of SARS-Like Coronaviruses

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 310; no. 5748; pp. 676 - 679
• Main Authors: Li, Wendong, 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
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 28-10-2005; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Analysis; Animals; Bats; Biological and medical sciences; Biological variation; Cercopithecus aethiops; China - epidemiology; Chiroptera; Chiroptera - virology; Coding; Communicable Diseases, Emerging; Coronavirus - classification; Coronavirus infections; Disease Outbreaks; Disease Reservoirs; Epidemics; Epidemiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genetic Variation; Genome, Viral; Genomes; Henipavirus - classification; Humans; Medically important nuisances and vectors, pests of stored products and materials: population survey and control; Microbiology; Molecular Sequence Data; Mutation; Natural reservoirs; Neurons; Open reading frames; Phylogeny; Polymerase Chain Reaction; SARS; SARS coronavirus; SARS virus; SARS Virus - classification; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Severe acute respiratory syndrome; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - epidemiology; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - transmission; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - virology; Vectors. Intermediate hosts; Vero Cells; Virology; Viruses; Viverridae - virology; Asia; China; China, People's Rep; Human; Genetic variability; Reservoir; Host; Epidemiology; Virus; Vertebrata; Coronavirus; Mammalia; Severe acute respiratory syndrome virus; Isolate; Coronaviridae; Nidovirales; Chiroptera
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1118391

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.