Isolation and characterization of a novel bat coronavirus closely related to the direct progenitor of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus

Xing-Lou Yang
Ben Hu
Bo Wang

Abstract

We report the isolation and characterization of a novel bat coronavirus which is much closer to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in genomic sequence than others previously reported, particularly in its S gene. Cell entry and susceptibility studies indicated that this virus can use ACE2 as a receptor and infect animal and human cell lines. Our results provide further evidence of the bat origin of the SARS-CoV and highlight the likelihood of future bat coronavirus emergence in humans.