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. 2016 Feb 2;31(1):69–77. doi: 10.1007/s12250-016-3727-3

Detection and characterization of diverse alpha- and betacoronaviruses from bats in China

Lin Xu 1, Fuqiang Zhang 2, Weihong Yang 3, Tinglei Jiang 4, Guanjun Lu 4, Biao He 1, Xingyu Li 1, Tingsong Hu 2, Gang Chen 2, Yun Feng 3, Yuzhen Zhang 3, Quanshui Fan 2, Jiang Feng 4, Hailin Zhang 3, Changchun Tu 1,5,✉
PMCID: PMC7090707  PMID: 26847648

Abstract

Bats have been implicated as important reservoir hosts of alpha- and betacoronaviruses. In this study, diverse coronaviruses (CoVs) were detected in 50 of 951 (positive rate 5.3%) intestinal specimens of eight bat species collected in four provinces and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China by pan-coronavirus RT-PCR screening. Based on 400-nt RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) sequence analysis, eight belonged to genus Alphacoronavirus and 42 to Betacoronavirus. Among the 50 positive specimens, thirteen gave rise to CoV full-length RdRP gene amplification for further sequence comparison, of which three divergent sequences (two from a unreported province) were subjected to full genome sequencing. Two complete genomes of betacoronaviruses (JTMC15 and JPDB144) and one nearly-complete genome of alphacoronavirus (JTAC2) were sequenced and their genomic organization predicted. The present study has identified additional numbers of genetically diverse bat-borne coronaviruses with a wide distribution in China. Two new species of bat CoV, identified through sequence comparison and phylogenetic analysis, are proposed.graphic file with name 12250_2016_3727_Figa_HTML.jpg

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available for this article at 10.1007/s12250-016-3727-3 and is accessible for authorized users.

Keywords: bats, Alphacoronavirus, Betacoronavirus, diversity

Electronic supplementary material

12250_2016_3727_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (577.5KB, pdf)

Supplementary material, approximately 1591 KB.

Footnotes

ORCID: 0000-0002-8134-7502

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Supplementary Materials

12250_2016_3727_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (577.5KB, pdf)

Supplementary material, approximately 1591 KB.

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