1. Identifying SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses in Malayan pangolins.
- Author
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Lam TT, Jia N, Zhang YW, Shum MH, Jiang JF, Zhu HC, Tong YG, Shi YX, Ni XB, Liao YS, Li WJ, Jiang BG, Wei W, Yuan TT, Zheng K, Cui XM, Li J, Pei GQ, Qiang X, Cheung WY, Li LF, Sun FF, Qin S, Huang JC, Leung GM, Holmes EC, Hu YL, Guan Y, and Cao WC
- Subjects
- Amino Acid Sequence, Animals, Betacoronavirus chemistry, Betacoronavirus classification, COVID-19, China epidemiology, Chiroptera virology, Coronavirus Infections epidemiology, Coronavirus Infections transmission, Coronavirus Infections virology, Disease Reservoirs virology, Genomics, Humans, Malaysia, Pandemics, Phylogeny, Pneumonia, Viral epidemiology, Pneumonia, Viral transmission, Pneumonia, Viral virology, Recombination, Genetic, SARS-CoV-2, Sequence Alignment, Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus chemistry, Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus genetics, Zoonoses virology, Betacoronavirus genetics, Betacoronavirus isolation & purification, Eutheria virology, Evolution, Molecular, Genome, Viral genetics, Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
- Abstract
The ongoing outbreak of viral pneumonia in China and across the world is associated with a new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2
1 . This outbreak has been tentatively associated with a seafood market in Wuhan, China, where the sale of wild animals may be the source of zoonotic infection2 . Although bats are probable reservoir hosts for SARS-CoV-2, the identity of any intermediate host that may have facilitated transfer to humans is unknown. Here we report the identification of SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses in Malayan pangolins (Manis javanica) seized in anti-smuggling operations in southern China. Metagenomic sequencing identified pangolin-associated coronaviruses that belong to two sub-lineages of SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses, including one that exhibits strong similarity in the receptor-binding domain to SARS-CoV-2. The discovery of multiple lineages of pangolin coronavirus and their similarity to SARS-CoV-2 suggests that pangolins should be considered as possible hosts in the emergence of new coronaviruses and should be removed from wet markets to prevent zoonotic transmission.- Published
- 2020
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