A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin

Peng Zhou, Xing-Lou Yang, Xian-Guang Wang, Ben Hu, Lei Zhang, Wei Zhang, Hao-Rui Si, Yan Zhu, Bei Li, Chao-Lin Huang, Hui-Dong Chen, Jing Chen, Yun Luo, Hua Guo, Ren-Di Jiang, Mei-Qin Liu, Ying Chen, Xu-Rui Shen, Xi Wang, Xiao-Shuang Zheng, Kai Zhao, Quan-Jiao Chen, Fei Deng, Lin-Lin Liu, Bing Yan, Fa-Xian Zhan, Yan-Yi Wang, Geng-Fu Xiao and Zheng-Li Shi ()
Additional contact information
Peng Zhou: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xing-Lou Yang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xian-Guang Wang: Wuhan Jin Yin-Tan Hospital
Ben Hu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Lei Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wei Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Hao-Rui Si: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yan Zhu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Bei Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Chao-Lin Huang: Wuhan Jin Yin-Tan Hospital
Hui-Dong Chen: Wuhan Jin Yin-Tan Hospital
Jing Chen: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yun Luo: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Hua Guo: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Ren-Di Jiang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Mei-Qin Liu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Ying Chen: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xu-Rui Shen: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xi Wang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xiao-Shuang Zheng: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Kai Zhao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Quan-Jiao Chen: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Fei Deng: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Lin-Lin Liu: Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Bing Yan: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Fa-Xian Zhan: Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Yan-Yi Wang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Geng-Fu Xiao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zheng-Li Shi: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature, 2020, vol. 579, issue 7798, 270-273

Abstract: Abstract Since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) 18 years ago, a large number of SARS-related coronaviruses (SARSr-CoVs) have been discovered in their natural reservoir host, bats1–4. Previous studies have shown that some bat SARSr-CoVs have the potential to infect humans5–7. Here we report the identification and characterization of a new coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which caused an epidemic of acute respiratory syndrome in humans in Wuhan, China. The epidemic, which started on 12 December 2019, had caused 2,794 laboratory-confirmed infections including 80 deaths by 26 January 2020. Full-length genome sequences were obtained from five patients at an early stage of the outbreak. The sequences are almost identical and share 79.6% sequence identity to SARS-CoV. Furthermore, we show that 2019-nCoV is 96% identical at the whole-genome level to a bat coronavirus. Pairwise protein sequence analysis of seven conserved non-structural proteins domains show that this virus belongs to the species of SARSr-CoV. In addition, 2019-nCoV virus isolated from the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of a critically ill patient could be neutralized by sera from several patients. Notably, we confirmed that 2019-nCoV uses the same cell entry receptor—angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2)—as SARS-CoV.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2012-7

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