An emerging novel bovine coronavirus with a 4-amino-acid insertion in the receptor-binding domain of the hemagglutinin-esterase gene.

Abstract

The hemagglutinin-esterase (HE) protein of betacoronavirus lineage A is a secondary receptor in the infection process and is involved in the emergence of new betacoronavirus genotypes with altered host specificity and tissue tropism. We previously reported a novel recombinant bovine coronavirus (BCoV) strain that was circulating in dairy cattle in China, but this virus was not successfully isolated, and the genetic characteristics of BCoV are still largely unknown. In this study, 20 diarrheic faecal samples were collected from a farm in Liaoning province that had an outbreak of calf diarrhea (≤ 3 months of age) in November 2018, and all of the samples tested positive for BCoV by RT-PCR. In addition, a BCoV strain with a recombinant HE (designated as SWUN/A1/2018) and another BCoV strain with a recombinant HE containing an insertion (designated as SWUN/A10/2018) were successfully isolated in cell culture (TCID50: 104.25/mL and 104.73/mL, respectively). Unexpectedly, we identified the emergence of a novel BCoV variant characterized by a 12-nt bovine gene insertion in the receptor-binding domain in a natural recombinant HE gene, suggesting a novel evolutionary pattern in BCoV.

• Authors: Keha-Mo Abi, Qi Zhang, Bin Zhang, Long Zhou, Hua Yue, Cheng Tang
• Journal: Archives of virology (Arch Virol) Vol. 165 Issue 12 Pg. 3011-3015 (Dec 2020) ISSN: 1432-8798 [Electronic] Austria
• PMID: 33025200 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Hemagglutinins, Viral
• RNA, Viral
• Viral Fusion Proteins
• hemagglutinin esterase

Topics

• Animals
• Cattle
• Cattle Diseases (epidemiology, pathology, virology)
• China (epidemiology)
• Coronavirus Infections (epidemiology, pathology, veterinary, virology)
• Coronavirus, Bovine (classification, genetics, isolation & purification)
• Diarrhea (epidemiology, pathology, veterinary, virology)
• Evolution, Molecular
• Feces (virology)
• Gene Expression
• Genotype
• Hemagglutinins, Viral (genetics)
• Models, Molecular
• Mutagenesis, Insertional
• Phylogeny
• Protein Structure, Secondary
• RNA, Viral (genetics)
• Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
• Sequence Analysis, DNA
• Viral Fusion Proteins (genetics)