TY - JOUR
T1 - Polyphyletic origin of MERS coronaviruses and isolation of a novel clade A strain from dromedary camels in the United Arab Emirates
AU - Lau, Susanna K.P.
AU - Wernery, Renate
AU - Wong, Emily Y.M.
AU - Joseph, Sunitha
AU - Tsang, Alan K.L.
AU - Patteril, Nissy Annie Georgy
AU - Elizabeth, Shyna K.
AU - Chan, Kwok Hung
AU - Muhammed, Rubeena
AU - Kinne, Jöerg
AU - Yuen, Kwok Yung
AU - Wernery, Ulrich
AU - Woo, Patrick C.Y.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2016.
PY - 2016/12/21
Y1 - 2016/12/21
N2 - Little is known regarding the molecular epidemiology of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) circulating in dromedaries outside Saudi Arabia. To address this knowledge gap, we sequenced 10 complete genomes of MERS-CoVs isolated from 2 live and 8 dead dromedaries from different regions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Phylogenetic analysis revealed one novel clade A strain, the first detected in the UAE, and nine clade B strains. Strain D998/15 had a distinct phylogenetic position within clade A, being more closely related to the dromedary isolate NRCE-HKU205 from Egypt than to the human isolates EMC/2012 and Jordan-N3/2012. A comparison of predicted protein sequences also demonstrated the existence of two clade A lineages with unique amino acid substitutions, A1 (EMC/2012 and Jordan-N3/2012) and A2 (D998/15 and NRCEHKU205), circulating in humans and camels, respectively. The nine clade B isolates belong to three distinct lineages: B1, B3 and B5. Two B3 strains, D1271/15 and D1189.1/15, showed evidence of recombination between lineages B4 and B5 in ORF1ab. Molecular clock analysis dated the time of the most recent common ancestor (tMRCA) of clade A to March 2011 and that of clade B to November 2011. Our data support a polyphyletic origin of MERS-CoV in dromedaries and the co-circulation of diverse MERS-CoVs including recombinant strains in the UAE.
AB - Little is known regarding the molecular epidemiology of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) circulating in dromedaries outside Saudi Arabia. To address this knowledge gap, we sequenced 10 complete genomes of MERS-CoVs isolated from 2 live and 8 dead dromedaries from different regions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Phylogenetic analysis revealed one novel clade A strain, the first detected in the UAE, and nine clade B strains. Strain D998/15 had a distinct phylogenetic position within clade A, being more closely related to the dromedary isolate NRCE-HKU205 from Egypt than to the human isolates EMC/2012 and Jordan-N3/2012. A comparison of predicted protein sequences also demonstrated the existence of two clade A lineages with unique amino acid substitutions, A1 (EMC/2012 and Jordan-N3/2012) and A2 (D998/15 and NRCEHKU205), circulating in humans and camels, respectively. The nine clade B isolates belong to three distinct lineages: B1, B3 and B5. Two B3 strains, D1271/15 and D1189.1/15, showed evidence of recombination between lineages B4 and B5 in ORF1ab. Molecular clock analysis dated the time of the most recent common ancestor (tMRCA) of clade A to March 2011 and that of clade B to November 2011. Our data support a polyphyletic origin of MERS-CoV in dromedaries and the co-circulation of diverse MERS-CoVs including recombinant strains in the UAE.
KW - Clade A
KW - Dromedary camels
KW - MERS
KW - Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus
KW - Novel
KW - Polyphyletic
KW - United Arab Emirates
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U2 - 10.1038/emi.2016.129
DO - 10.1038/emi.2016.129
M3 - Article
C2 - 27999424
AN - SCOPUS:85011966022
SN - 2222-1751
VL - 5
JO - Emerging Microbes and Infections
JF - Emerging Microbes and Infections
IS - 12
M1 - e128
ER -