Giuseppe
Emeritus
[Source: mBio, full page: (LINK). Abstract, edited.]
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The New Age of Virus Discovery: Genomic Analysis of a Novel Human Betacoronavirus Isolated from a Fatal Case of Pneumonia
Kathryn V. Holmes<SUP>a</SUP> and Samuel R. Dominguez<SUP>a,b,c</SUP>
<SUP></SUP>
Departments of Microbiology<SUP>a</SUP> and Pediatrics,<SUP>b</SUP> University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, USA, and Childrens’ Hospital Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, USA<SUP>c</SUP>
<SUP></SUP>
Address correspondence to Kathryn V. Holmes, Kathryn.Holmes{at}ucdenver.edu.
ABSTRACT
A new human betacoronavirus in lineage c, tentatively called HCoV-EMC, was isolated from a patient from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who died from acute severe pneumonia and renal failure. The viral RNA has been detected in eight additional cases. Sequencing and bioinformatic analysis of the viral genomic RNA showed that it is a novel virus not previously detected in any other species and that its closest relatives are two Asian bat coronaviruses. HCoV-EMC may represent a sporadic spillover to humans from an unknown animal reservoir. In a recent article, van Boheemen et al. demonstrated how state-of-the-art sequencing technology and bioinformatic analysis can quickly provide critical insight into the viral genome sequence, phylogeny, replication strategy, and potential drug and vaccine targets and generate tools to evaluate the possible epidemic risk associated with this novel human virus.
Footnotes
Citation Holmes KV, Dominguez SR. 2013. The new age of virus discovery: genomic analysis of a novel human betacoronavirus isolated from a fatal case of pneumonia. mBio 4(1):e00548-12. doi:10.1128/mBio.00548-12.
Received 26 November 2012 - Accepted 26 November 2012 - Published 8 January 2013
Copyright © 2013 Holmes and Dominguez.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license, which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
-Kathryn V. Holmes<SUP>a</SUP> and Samuel R. Dominguez<SUP>a,b,c</SUP>
<SUP></SUP>
Departments of Microbiology<SUP>a</SUP> and Pediatrics,<SUP>b</SUP> University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, USA, and Childrens’ Hospital Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, USA<SUP>c</SUP>
<SUP></SUP>
Address correspondence to Kathryn V. Holmes, Kathryn.Holmes{at}ucdenver.edu.
ABSTRACT
A new human betacoronavirus in lineage c, tentatively called HCoV-EMC, was isolated from a patient from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who died from acute severe pneumonia and renal failure. The viral RNA has been detected in eight additional cases. Sequencing and bioinformatic analysis of the viral genomic RNA showed that it is a novel virus not previously detected in any other species and that its closest relatives are two Asian bat coronaviruses. HCoV-EMC may represent a sporadic spillover to humans from an unknown animal reservoir. In a recent article, van Boheemen et al. demonstrated how state-of-the-art sequencing technology and bioinformatic analysis can quickly provide critical insight into the viral genome sequence, phylogeny, replication strategy, and potential drug and vaccine targets and generate tools to evaluate the possible epidemic risk associated with this novel human virus.
Footnotes
Citation Holmes KV, Dominguez SR. 2013. The new age of virus discovery: genomic analysis of a novel human betacoronavirus isolated from a fatal case of pneumonia. mBio 4(1):e00548-12. doi:10.1128/mBio.00548-12.
Received 26 November 2012 - Accepted 26 November 2012 - Published 8 January 2013
Copyright © 2013 Holmes and Dominguez.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license, which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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