title: Bats are natural reservoirs of SARS-like coronaviruses.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Wendong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zhengli
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Wuze
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Jonathan H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Epstein
authors.forename: Hanzhong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Crameri
authors.forename: Zhihong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Huajun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jianhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McEachern
authors.forename: Hume
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Field
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Daszak
authors.forename: Bryan T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Eaton
authors.forename: Shuyi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Lin-Fa
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000821:virology*; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D021821:Communicable Diseases, Emerging; D017934:Coronavirus / Q000145:classification; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004197:Disease Reservoirs; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016679:Genome, Viral; D045403:Henipavirus / Q000145:classification; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D045473:Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus / Q000145:classification; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission / Q000821:virology; D014709:Vero Cells; D045949:Viverridae / Q000821:virology