title: Evolutionary Dynamics of MERS-CoV: Potential Recombination, Positive Selection and Transmission.
abstract: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) belongs to beta group of coronavirus and was first discovered in 2012. MERS-CoV can infect multiple host species and cause severe diseases in human. We conducted a series of phylogenetic and bioinformatic analyses to study the evolution dynamics of MERS-CoV among different host species with genomic data. Our analyses show: 1) 28 potential recombinant sequences were detected and they can be classified into seven potential recombinant types; 2) The spike (S) protein of MERS-CoV was under strong positive selection when MERS-CoV transmitted from their natural host to human; 3) Six out of nine positive selection sites detected in spike (S) protein are located in its receptor-binding domain which is in direct contact with host cells; 4) MERS-CoV frequently transmitted back and forth between human and camel after it had acquired the human-camel infection capability. Together, these results suggest that potential recombination events might have happened frequently during MERS-CoV's evolutionary history and the positive selection sites in MERS-CoV's S protein might enable it to infect human.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering and MOE Key Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering and MOE Key Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, PR China.
authors.forename: Libing
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering and MOE Key Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, PR China.|Department of Genetics, Development, and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA.
authors.forename: Xun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019295:Computational Biology; D018352:Coronavirus Infections / Q000635:transmission / Q000662:veterinary / Q000821:virology*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D065207:Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010802:Phylogeny; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012641:Selection, Genetic