Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the common cold, while more lethal varieties can cause SARS, MERS and COVID-19, which is causing the ongoing pandemic. In cows and pigs they cause diarrhea, while in mice they cause hepatitis and encephalomyelitis.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus is a species of virus consisting of many known strains phylogenetically related to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1 (SARS-CoV-1) that have been shown to possess the capability to infect humans, bats, and certain other mammals. These enveloped, positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses enter host cells by binding to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor. The SARSr-CoV species is a member of the genus Betacoronavirus and of the subgenus Sarbecovirus.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1 (SARS-CoV-1), previously known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), is a strain of coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the respiratory illness responsible for the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak. It is an enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus that infects the epithelial cells within the lungs. The virus enters the host cell by binding to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2. It infects humans, bats, and palm civets. The SARS-CoV-1 outbreak was largely brought under control by simple public health measures. Testing people with symptoms, isolating and quarantining suspected cases, and restricting travel all had an effect. SARS-CoV-1 was most transmissible when patients were sick, so its spread could be effectively suppressed by isolating patients with symptoms.
Jinning District is one of seven districts of the prefecture-level city of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, Southwest China. The formation of the district was approved on November 24, 2016, after the dissolution of the former Jinning County (晋宁县) by the State Council. It is located at the southern tip of Dian Lake and is well known within China as the birthplace of Zheng He.
Betacoronavirus is one of four genera of coronaviruses. Member viruses are enveloped, positive-strand RNA viruses that infect mammals. The natural reservoir for betacoronaviruses are bats and rodents. Rodents are the reservoir for the subgenus Embecovirus, while bats are the reservoir for the other subgenera.
Bat SARS-like coronavirus WIV1, also sometimes called SARS-like coronavirus WIV1, is a strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus (SARSr-CoV) isolated from Chinese rufous horseshoe bats in 2013. Like all coronaviruses, virions consist of single-stranded positive-sense RNA enclosed within an envelope.
Shi Zhengli is a Chinese virologist who researches SARS-like coronaviruses of bat origin. Shi directs the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). In 2017, Shi and her colleague Cui Jie discovered that the SARS coronavirus likely originated in a population of cave-dwelling horseshoe bats in Xiyang Yi Ethnic Township, Yunnan. She came to prominence in the popular press as "Batwoman" during the COVID-19 pandemic for her work with bat coronaviruses. Shi was included in Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the respiratory illness responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had the provisional name 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), and has also been called human coronavirus 2019. First identified in the city of Wuhan, Hubei, China, the World Health Organization designated the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern from January 30, 2020, to May 5, 2023. SARS‑CoV‑2 is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus that is contagious in humans.
Coronavirus diseases are caused by viruses in the coronavirus subfamily, a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, the group of viruses cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the common cold, while more lethal varieties can cause SARS, MERS and COVID-19. As of 2021, 45 species are registered as coronaviruses, whilst 11 diseases have been identified, as listed below.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences is a research institute on virology administered by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which reports to the State Council of the People's Republic of China. The institute is one of nine independent organisations in the Wuhan Branch of the CAS. Located in Jiangxia District, Wuhan, Hubei, it was founded in 1956 and opened mainland China's first biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory in 2018. The institute has collaborated with the Galveston National Laboratory in the United States, the Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie in France, and the National Microbiology Laboratory in Canada. The institute has been an active premier research center for the study of coronaviruses.
The history of coronaviruses is an account of the discovery of the diseases caused by coronaviruses and the diseases they cause. It starts with the first report of a new type of upper-respiratory tract disease among chickens in North Dakota, U.S., in 1931. The causative agent was identified as a virus in 1933. By 1936, the disease and the virus were recognised as unique from other viral disease. They became known as infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), but later officially renamed as Avian coronavirus.
Bat coronavirus RaTG13 is a SARS-like betacoronavirus identified in the droppings of the horseshoe bat Rhinolophus affinis. It was discovered in 2013 in bat droppings from a mining cave near the town of Tongguan in Mojiang county in Yunnan, China. In February 2020, it was identified as the closest known relative of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, sharing 96.1% nucleotide identity. However, in 2022, scientists found three closer matches in bats found 530 km south, in Feuang, Laos, designated as BANAL-52, BANAL-103 and BANAL-236.
RmYN02 is a bat-derived strain of Severe acute respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus. It was discovered in bat droppings collected between May and October 2019 from sites in Mengla County, Yunnan Province, China. It is the second-closest known relative of SARS-CoV-2, the virus strain that causes COVID-19, sharing 93.3% nucleotide identity at the scale of the complete virus genome. RmYN02 contains an insertion at the S1/S2 cleavage site in the spike protein, similar to SARS-CoV-2, suggesting that such insertion events can occur naturally.
Rc-o319 is a bat-derived strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus collected in little Japanese horseshoe bats from sites in Iwate, Japan. Its has 81% similarity to SARS-CoV-2 and is the earliest strain branch of the SARS-CoV-2 related coronavirus.
Civet SARS-CoV is a coronavirus associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which infected humans and caused SARS events from 2002 to 2003. It infected the masked palm civet. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is highly similar, with a genome sequence similarity of about 99.8%. Because several patients infected at the early stage of the epidemic had contact with fruit-eating Japanese raccoon dog in the market, tanuki may be a direct source of human SARS coronavirus. At the end of 2003, four more people in Guangzhou, China, were infected with the disease. Sequence analysis found that the similarity with the tanuki virus reached 99.9%, and the SARS coronavirus was also caused by cases of tanuki transmission.
Bat coronavirus RpYN06 is a SARS-like betacoronavirus that infects the horseshoe bat Rhinolophus pusillus. It is a close relative of SARS-CoV-2 with a 94.48% sequence identity.
16BO133 is a SARS-like coronavirus (SL-COV) which was found in the greater horseshoe bat in South Korea. It was published in 2019 and its genome was completely sequenced. The sequenced Korean SARSr-CoV strain belongs to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1, and its genome sequence similarity is 82.8%.
LYRa11 is a SARS-like coronavirus (SL-COV) which was identified in 2011 in samples of intermediate horseshoe bats in Baoshan, Yunnan, China. The genome of this virus strain is 29805nt long, and the similarity to the whole genome sequence of SARS-CoV that caused the SARS outbreak is 91%. It was published in 2014. Like SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, LYRa11 virus uses ACE2 as a receptor for infecting cells.
ZC45 and ZXC21, sometimes known as the Zhoushan virus, are two bat-derived strains of severe acute respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus. They were collected from least horseshoe bats by personnel from military laboratories in the Third Military Medical University and the Research Institute for Medicine of Nanjing Command between July 2015 and February 2017 from sites in Zhoushan, Zhejiang, China, and published in 2018. These two virus strains belong to the clade of SARS-CoV-2, the virus strain that causes COVID-19, sharing 88% nucleotide identity at the scale of the complete virus genome.
