mBio：发现一种引发急性呼吸窘迫综合症的新型冠状病毒HCoV-EMC/2012病毒

近日，刊登在国际杂志mBio上的一篇研究报告中，来自荷兰的研究者揭示了一种新型的冠状病毒，其和在蝙蝠中发现的病毒极其相似，研究者对于这种病毒HCoV-EMC/2012的基因组进行了分析研究以解析其和其它病毒的亲缘关系以及该病毒的来源，这项研究有助于研究者开发出新型的诊断策略以及新型疫苗。

文章中，研究者进行了全基因组对比分析，结果显示，HCoV-EMC/2012病毒仅仅存在99个单核苷酸的差异，这也就表明，其和蝙蝠身上发现的病毒同属一个种，因为99个核苷酸在全基因组中所占的比例仅为0.3%-0.4%。

研究者使用最优化的深度随机扩增测序法对病毒HCoV-EMC/2012的全基因组进行测序，亲缘度较高的病毒BtCoV-HKU4和BtCoV-HKU5分别来自亚洲的小竹蝙蝠和日本的蝙蝠，而测序结果显示病毒HCoV-EMC/2012与病毒BtCoV-HKU5具有77%的相似性，这就足以证明病毒HCoV-EMC/2012是一种新型的病毒种。

研究者Fouchier说，基于研究发现，病毒HCoV-EMC/2012和蝙蝠身上的病毒具有一定的相似性，这无疑对人类来说是一种新型的感染病毒，这种新型病毒的来源或许是蝙蝠。为了鉴别出这种新型病毒的来源以及其感染的一些病例，该病毒的全基因组测序可以帮助研究者更为清楚地研究这种病毒。通过对病毒基因组进行合成性拷贝分析，研究者表示，他们可以在实验室重新构建出这种病毒，并且研究其感染特性。

基因组测序技术对于间接保护公众健康至关重要，一种详细的基因组测序技术对于开发新型诊断方法以及新型抗病毒疫苗来说至关重要。

编译自：New coronavirus related to viruses from bats

doi:10.1128/mBio.00473-12
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PMID:

Genomic characterization of a newly discovered coronavirus associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome in humans.

van Boheemen S, de Graaf M, Lauber C, Bestebroer TM, Raj VS, Zaki AM, Osterhaus AD, Haagmans BL, Gorbalenya AE, Snijder EJ, Fouchier RA.

A novel human coronavirus (HCoV-EMC/2012) was isolated from a man with acute pneumonia and renal failure in June 2012. This report describes the complete genome sequence, genome organization, and expression strategy of HCoV-EMC/2012 and its relation with known coronaviruses. The genome contains 30,119 nucleotides and contains at least 10 predicted open reading frames, 9 of which are predicted to be expressed from a nested set of seven subgenomic mRNAs. Phylogenetic analysis of the replicase gene of coronaviruses with completely sequenced genomes showed that HCoV-EMC/2012 is most closely related to Tylonycteris bat coronavirus HKU4 (BtCoV-HKU4) and Pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5 (BtCoV-HKU5), which prototype two species in lineage C of the genus Betacoronavirus. In accordance with the guidelines of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, and in view of the 75% and 77% amino acid sequence identity in 7 conserved replicase domains with BtCoV-HKU4 and BtCoV-HKU5, respectively, we propose that HCoV-EMC/2012 prototypes a novel species in the genus Betacoronavirus. HCoV-EMC/2012 may be most closely related to a coronavirus detected in Pipistrellus pipistrellus in The Netherlands, but because only a short sequence from the most conserved part of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase-encoding region of the genome was reported for this bat virus, its genetic distance from HCoV-EMC remains uncertain. HCoV-EMC/2012 is the sixth coronavirus known to infect humans and the first human virus within betacoronavirus lineage C. IMPORTANCE Coronaviruses are capable of infecting humans and many animal species. Most infections caused by human coronaviruses are relatively mild. However, the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) caused by SARS-CoV in 2002 to 2003 and the fatal infection of a human by HCoV-EMC/2012 in 2012 show that coronaviruses are able to cause severe, sometimes fatal disease in humans. We have determined the complete genome of HCoV-EMC/2012 using an unbiased virus discovery approach involving next-generation sequencing techniques, which enabled subsequent state-of-the-art bioinformatics, phylogenetics, and taxonomic analyses. By establishing its complete genome sequence, HCoV-EMC/2012 was characterized as a new genotype which is closely related to bat coronaviruses that are distant from SARS-CoV. We expect that this information will be vital to rapid advancement of both clinical and vital research on this emerging pathogen.