title: Evidence from the evolutionary analysis of nucleotide sequences for a recombinant history of SARS-CoV.
abstract: The origins and evolutionary history of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus (SARS-CoV) remain an issue of uncertainty and debate. Based on evolutionary analyses of coronavirus DNA sequences, encompassing an approximately 13kb stretch of the SARS-TOR2 genome, we provide evidence that SARS-CoV has a recombinant history with lineages of types I and III coronavirus. We identified a minimum of five recombinant regions ranging from 83 to 863bp in length and including the polymerase, nsp9, nsp10, and nsp14. Our results are consistent with a hypothesis of viral host jumping events, concomitant with the reassortment of bird and mammalian coronaviruses, a scenario analogous to earlier outbreaks of influenzae.
authors.affiliation: Bioinformatics Division, Genetics Research, GlaxoSmithKline, 1250 South Collegeville Road, Collegeville, PA 19426, USA. michael_j_stanhope@gsk.com
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Stanhope
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Amrine-Madsen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D045473:Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*