Bats in China carry all the ingredients to make a new SARS virus-... http://english.whiov.cas.cn/Research2016/Research_Progress2016...

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Brief Introduction ∠∠
Bats in China carry all the ingredients to make a
Research Groups ∠∠
new SARS virus
Research ∠∠ Date：01-12-2017 | 【Print】 【close】
Progress

In that outbreak, masked palm civet cats sold in live animal markets passed the virus to people.
It wasn’t clear whether civets were the initial source of the virus, or if they caught it from some
other animal. Since then, evidence has been building implicating species of horseshoe bats as
the origin (SN: 11/30/13, p. 13). Until now, though, coronaviruses isolated from bats were
genetically distinct from the one that caused the 2003 outbreak, suggesting that bat strains
weren’t the direct ancestor of SARS.

After five years of surveying bats in a cave in southern China’s Yunnan Province, Zhengli Shi
and colleagues discovered 11 new strains of SARS-related viruses in horseshoe bats (especially
in Rhinolophus sinicus). Within the strains, the researchers found all the genes to make a SARS
coronavirus similar to the epidemic strain, says Shi, a virologist at the Wuhan Institute of
Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

These new strains are more similar to the human version of SARS than were previously
identified bat viruses, says Matthew Frieman, a virologist at the University of Maryland in
Baltimore.

By analyzing the new viruses’ complete genetic makeup, Shi and her colleagues retraced the
steps that might have given rise to the original SARS virus. A few spots in the viruses’ DNA
seem particularly prone to rearrangement, so remixing happens often. The study suggests that
recombination between viruses has shaped the evolution of SARS, says Baric.

Several of the strains could already grow in human cells, Shi’s team found. That indicates
“there’s a chance that the viruses that exist in these bats could jump to people,” Frieman says.
“Whether they will or not is anybody’s guess.”

Trying to head off that jump by getting rid of the bats is not a solution, say Frieman and Baric.
Bats perform many important ecological tasks, such as eating insects and pollinating some
plants. Coronaviruses don’t make bats sick, so studying bats’ immune systems, Frieman says,
could give scientists clues about how to fight the illness.

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Bats in China carry all the ingredients to make a new SARS virus-... http://english.whiov.cas.cn/Research2016/Research_Progress2016...

Genetic studies of viruses from horseshoe bats (shown) in one cave in China suggest the
animals are reservoirs of SARS coronaviruses. Bats harbor many viruses that can sometimes
infect people, including Ebola and Marburg. LIBIAO ZHANG/GUANGDONG INSTITUTE OF
APPLIED BIOLOGICAL RESOURCE, CHINA

Source:

ScienceNews (https://www.sciencenews.org/article/bats-china-carry-all-ingredients-make-new-
sars-virus)

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