From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Coronaviruses 004 lores.jpg
Virus classification
Group: Group IV ((+)ssRNA)
Order: Nidovirales
Family: Coronaviridae
Subfamily: Coronavirinae
Type species

Human coronavirus HKU1
Human coronavirus OC43
Human coronavirus 229E
Pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5
Tylonycteris bat coronavirus HKU4
Rousettus bat coronavirus HKU9
London1 novel CoV/2012

Coronaviruses are species in the genera of virus belonging to one of two subfamilies Coronavirinae and Torovirinae in the family Coronaviridae, in the order Nidovirales.[1][2] Coronaviruses are enveloped viruses with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome and with a nucleocapsid of helical symmetry. The genomic size of coronaviruses ranges from approximately 26 to 32 kilobases, the largest for an RNA virus.





Diseases caused by coronaviruses[edit]

Coronaviruses primarily infect the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tract of mammals and birds. Six different currently known strains of coronaviruses infect humans. The much publicized human coronavirus, SARS-CoV which causes SARS, has a unique pathogenesis because it causes both upper and lower respiratory tract infections.[5]






The infection cycle of coronavirus





Severe acute respiratory syndrome[edit]



Novel human coronaviruses[edit]


By the end of 2004, three independent research labs reported the discovery of a fourth human coronavirus. It has been named NL63, NL, and the New Haven coronavirus by different research groups.[12] The three labs are still arguing over which one discovered the virus first and has the right to name it.


In September 2012, a sixth new type of coronavirus was identified, initially called Novel Coronavirus 2012, and now officially Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) [13][14]

The World Health Organisation accordingly issued a global alert[15] The WHO update on 28 September 2012 said that the virus did not seem to pass easily from person to person.[16] However, on May 12, 2013, a case of contamination from human to human in France was confirmed by the French Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.[17] In addition, cases of person-to-person transmission have been reported by the Ministry of Health in Tunisia. Two confirmed cases seem to have caught the disease from their late father, who became ill after a visit to Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

By Oct. 30 2013, there were 124 cases and 52 deaths in Saudi Arabia.[18] After the Dutch Erasmus Medical Centre sequenced the virus, the virus was given a new name, Human Corona Virus-Erasmus Medical Centre (HCoV-EMC). The final name for the virus is Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).


Listing of human coronaviruses[edit]

Coronaviruses in veterinary medicine[edit]


Listing of coronaviruses in domestic animals[edit]

(listed following their estimated economical importance)

Another new veterinary disease, Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, has emerged around the world. Its economic importance is as yet unclear, but shows high mortality in piglets.



The most recent common ancestor of the coronavirus has been placed at 8,000 years BC.[21] They may be considerably older than this.


Bovine coronavirus and canine respiratory coronavirus diverged from a common ancestor in 1951.[23] Bovine coronavirus and human coronavirus OC43 diverged in 1899. Bovine coronavirus diverged from the equine coronavirus species at the end of the 18th century.

Another estimate suggests that human coronavirus OC43 diverged from bovine coronavirus in 1890.[24]

The MRCA of human coronavirus OC43 has been dated to the 1950s.[25]


The most closely related bat coronovirus and the SARS coronavirus diverged in 1986.[27]

A path of evolution of the SARS virus and keen relationship with bats have been proposed.[28][29] The authors suggest that the coronaviruses have been coevolved with bats for a long time and the ancestors of SARS virus first infected the species of the genus Hipposideridae, subsequently spread to species of the Rhinolophidae and then to civets and finally to humans.

Alpaca coronavirus and human coronavirus 229E diverged before 1960.[30]

The human coronavirus NL63 and a bat coronovirus shared an MRCA 563 to 822 years ago.[31]

See also[edit]


  1. ^ a b de Groot RJ, Baker SC, Baric R, Enjuanes L, Gorbalenya AE, Holmes KV, Perlman S, Poon L, Rottier PJ, Talbot PJ, Woo PC, Ziebuhr J (2011). "Family Coronaviridae". In AMQ King, E Lefkowitz, MJ Adams, and EB Carstens (Eds),. Ninth Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. Elsevier, Oxford. pp. 806–828. ISBN 978-0-12-384684-6. 
  4. ^ Geller C, Varbanov M, Duval RE (2012). "Human coronaviruses: insights into environmental resistance and its influence on the development of new antiseptic strategies". Viruses. 4 (11): 3044–68. doi:10.3390/v4113044. PMC 3509683Freely accessible. PMID 23202515. 
  5. ^ a b Forgie S, Marrie TJ (2009). "Healthcare-associated atypical pneumonia". Seminars in Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. 30 (1): 67–85. doi:10.1055/s-0028-1119811. PMID 19199189. 
  7. ^ Jerry Murray, DVM (16 April 2014). "What's New With Ferret FIP-like Disease?" (xls). 
  8. ^ Weiss SR, Navas-Martin S (2005). "Coronavirus pathogenesis and the emerging pathogen severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus". Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews : MMBR. 69 (4): 635–64. doi:10.1128/MMBR.69.4.635-664.2005. PMC 1306801Freely accessible. PMID 16339739. 
  9. ^ Tirotta E, Carbajal KS, Schaumburg CS, Whitman L, Lane TE (2010). "Cell replacement therapies to promote remyelination in a viral model of demyelination". Journal of Neuroimmunology. 224 (1-2): 101–7. doi:10.1016/j.jneuroim.2010.05.013. PMC 2919340Freely accessible. PMID 20627412. 
  10. ^ Fehr AR, Perlman S (2015). "Coronaviruses: an overview of their replication and pathogenesis". Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton, N.J.). 1282: 1–23. doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-2438-7_1. PMC 4369385Freely accessible. PMID 25720466. 
  12. ^ van der Hoek L; Pyrc; Jebbink; et al. (April 2004). "Identification of a new human coronavirus". Nature Medicine. 10 (4): 368–73. doi:10.1038/nm1024. PMID 15034574. 
  16. ^ Kelland, Kate (28 September 2012). "New virus not spreading easily between people: WHO". Reuters. Retrieved 16 March 2013. 
  19. ^
  20. ^ the Merck Veterinary Manual
  21. ^ Wertheim, JO; Chu, DK; Peiris, JS; Kosakovsky Pond, SL; Poon, LL (2013). "A case for the ancient origin of coronaviruses". J Virol. 87 (12): 7039–7045. doi:10.1128/JVI.03273-12. PMID 23596293. 
  22. ^ Woo, PC; Lau, SK; Lam, CS; Lau, CC; Tsang, AK; Lau, JH; Bai, R; Teng, JL; Tsang, CC; et al. (2012). "Discovery of seven novel Mammalian and avian coronaviruses in the genus deltacoronavirus supports bat coronaviruses as the gene source of alphacoronavirus and betacoronavirus and avian coronaviruses as the gene source of gammacoronavirus and deltacoronavirus". J Virol. 86 (7): 3995–4008. doi:10.1128/JVI.06540-11. PMC 3302495Freely accessible. PMID 22278237. 
  23. ^ Bidokhti, MR; Tråvén, M; Krishna, NK; Munir, M; Belák, S; Alenius, S; Cortey, M (2013). "Evolutionary dynamics of bovine coronaviruses: natural selection pattern of the spike gene implies adaptive evolution of the strains". J Gen Virol. 94 (9): 2036–2049. doi:10.1099/vir.0.054940-0. 
  24. ^ Vijgen, L; Keyaerts, E; Moës, E; Thoelen, I; Wollants, E; Lemey, P; Vandamme, AM; Van Ranst, M (2005). "Complete genomic sequence of human coronavirus OC43: molecular clock analysis suggests a relatively recent zoonotic coronavirus transmission event". J Virol. 79 (3): 1595–1604. doi:10.1128/jvi.79.3.1595-1604.2005. PMID 15650185. 
  25. ^ Lau, SK; Lee, P; Tsang, AK; Yip, CC; Tse, H; Lee, RA; So, LY; Lau, YL; Chan, KH; et al. (2011). "Molecular epidemiology of human coronavirus OC43 reveals evolution of different genotypes over time and recent emergence of a novel genotype due to natural recombination". J Virol. 85 (21): 11325–37. doi:10.1128/JVI.05512-11. PMC 3194943Freely accessible. PMID 21849456. 
  26. ^ Lau, SK; Li, KS; Tsang, AK; Lam, CS; Ahmed, S; Chen, H; Chan, KH; Woo, PC; Yuen, KY; et al. (2013). "Genetic characterization of Betacoronavirus lineage C viruses in bats reveals marked sequence divergence in the spike protein of pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5 in Japanese pipistrelle: implications for the origin of the novel Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus". J Virol. 87 (15): 8638–8650. doi:10.1128/JVI.01055-13. PMC 3719811Freely accessible. PMID 23720729. 
  27. ^ Vijaykrishna, D; Smith, GJ; Zhang, JX; Peiris, JS; Chen, H; Guan, Y (2007). "Evolutionary insights into the ecology of coronaviruses". J Virol. 81 (8): 4012–4020. doi:10.1128/jvi.02605-06. PMID 17267506. 
  28. ^ Gouilh, MA; Puechmaille, SJ; Gonzalez, JP; Teeling, E; Kittayapong, P; Manuguerra, JC (2011). "SARS-Coronavirus ancestor's foot-prints in South-East Asian bat colonies and the refuge theory". Infect Genet Evol. 11 (7): 1690–702. doi:10.1016/j.meegid.2011.06.021. PMID 21763784. 
  29. ^ Cui J, Han N, Streicker D, Li G, Tang X, Shi Z, Hu Z, Zhao G, Fontanet A, Guan Y, Wang L, Jones G, Field HE, Daszak P, Zhang S; Han; Streicker; Li; Tang; Shi; Hu; Zhao; Fontanet; Guan; Wang; Jones; Field; Daszak; Zhang (Oct 2007). "Evolutionary relationships between bat coronaviruses and their hosts". Emerg. Infect. Dis. 13 (10): 1526–32. doi:10.3201/eid1310.070448. PMC 2851503Freely accessible. PMID 18258002. 
  30. ^ Crossley BM, Mock RE, Callison SA, Hietala SK (2012) Identification and characterization of a novel alpaca respiratory coronavirus most closely related to the human coronavirus 229E. Viruses 4(12):3689-3700. doi:10.3390/v4123689
  31. ^ Huynh, J; Li, S; Yount, B; Smith, A; Sturges, L; Olsen, JC; Nagel, J; Johnson, JB; Agnihothram, S; et al. (2012). "Evidence supporting a zoonotic origin of human coronavirus strain NL63". J Virol. 86 (23): 12816–25. doi:10.1128/JVI.00906-12. PMID 22993147. 

External links[edit]