RETRACTED ARTICLE: Origin and cross-species transmission of bat coronaviruses in China

Alice Latinne, Ben Hu, Kevin J. Olival, Guangjian Zhu, Libiao Zhang, Hongying Li, Aleksei A. Chmura, Hume E. Field, Carlos Zambrana-Torrelio, Jonathan H. Epstein, Bei Li, Wei Zhang, Lin-Fa Wang, Zheng-Li Shi () and Peter Daszak ()
Additional contact information
Alice Latinne: EcoHealth Alliance
Ben Hu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Kevin J. Olival: EcoHealth Alliance
Guangjian Zhu: EcoHealth Alliance
Libiao Zhang: Guangdong Academy of Sciences
Hongying Li: EcoHealth Alliance
Aleksei A. Chmura: EcoHealth Alliance
Hume E. Field: EcoHealth Alliance
Carlos Zambrana-Torrelio: EcoHealth Alliance
Jonathan H. Epstein: EcoHealth Alliance
Bei Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wei Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Lin-Fa Wang: Duke-NUS Medical School
Zheng-Li Shi: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Peter Daszak: EcoHealth Alliance

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Bats are presumed reservoirs of diverse coronaviruses (CoVs) including progenitors of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19. However, the evolution and diversification of these coronaviruses remains poorly understood. Here we use a Bayesian statistical framework and a large sequence data set from bat-CoVs (including 630 novel CoV sequences) in China to study their macroevolution, cross-species transmission and dispersal. We find that host-switching occurs more frequently and across more distantly related host taxa in alpha- than beta-CoVs, and is more highly constrained by phylogenetic distance for beta-CoVs. We show that inter-family and -genus switching is most common in Rhinolophidae and the genus Rhinolophus. Our analyses identify the host taxa and geographic regions that define hotspots of CoV evolutionary diversity in China that could help target bat-CoV discovery for proactive zoonotic disease surveillance. Finally, we present a phylogenetic analysis suggesting a likely origin for SARS-CoV-2 in Rhinolophus spp. bats.

Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-17687-3

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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17687-3

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