Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26809-4
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Funding
- American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT project [GHN-A-OO-09-00010-00, AID-OAA-A-14-00102]
- French Government (BGF)
- French Government [ANR-16-CONV-0005, ANR-10-LABX-62-IBEID]
- National Authority for Preah Vihear, UNESCO, Societe des amis du Museum et du Jardin des Plantes
- Museum national d'Histoire naturelle
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The study identified SARS-CoV-2 related coronaviruses in bats sampled in Cambodia, indicating a wider geographic distribution than previously reported. The findings suggest that Southeast Asia may be a key area to consider for future coronavirus surveillance.
In this study, Delaune et al., isolate and characterise a SARS-CoV-2-related coronavirus from two bats sampled in Cambodia. Their findings suggest that the geographic distribution of SARS-CoV-2-related viruses is wider than previously reported. Knowledge of the origin and reservoir of the coronavirus responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is still fragmentary. To date, the closest relatives to SARS-CoV-2 have been detected in Rhinolophus bats sampled in the Yunnan province, China. Here we describe the identification of SARS-CoV-2 related coronaviruses in two Rhinolophus shameli bats sampled in Cambodia in 2010. Metagenomic sequencing identifies nearly identical viruses sharing 92.6% nucleotide identity with SARS-CoV-2. Most genomic regions are closely related to SARS-CoV-2, with the exception of a region of the spike, which is not compatible with human ACE2-mediated entry. The discovery of these viruses in a bat species not found in China indicates that SARS-CoV-2 related viruses have a much wider geographic distribution than previously reported, and suggests that Southeast Asia represents a key area to consider for future surveillance for coronaviruses.
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