Genetic Characterisation and Comparison of Three Human Coronaviruses (HKU1, OC43, 229E) from Patients and Bovine Coronavirus (BCoV) from Cattle with Respiratory Disease in Slovenia.

Monika Jevšnik Virant,Miroslav Petrovec,Tomislav Paller,Danijela Černe,Ivan Toplak

doi:10.3390/v13040676

Abstract

Coronaviruses (CoV) are widely distributed pathogens of human and animals and can cause mild or severe respiratory and gastrointestinal disease. Antigenic and genetic similarity of some CoVs within the Betacoronavirus genus is evident. Therefore, for the first time in Slovenia, we investigated the genetic diversity of partial 390-nucleotides of RNA-dependent-RNA polymerase gene (RdRp) for 66 human (HCoV) and 24 bovine CoV (BCoV) positive samples, collected between 2010 and 2016 from human patients and cattle with respiratory disease. The characterized CoV strains belong to four different clusters, in three separate human clusters HCoV-HKU1 (n = 34), HCoV-OC43 (n = 31) and HCoV 229E (n = 1) and bovine grouping only as BCoVs (n = 24). BCoVs from cattle and HCoV-OC43 were genetically the most closely related and share 96.4–97.1% nucleotide and 96.9–98.5% amino acid identity.

Highlights

Coronaviruses (CoVs) are widely distributed pathogens associated with respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases in humans and animals [1]
For the first time in Slovenia, we investigated the genetic diversity of partial 390-nucleotides of RNA-dependent-RNA polymerase gene (RdRp) for 66 human (HCoV) and 24 bovine CoV (BCoV) positive samples, collected between 2010 and 2016 from human patients and cattle with respiratory disease
The phylogenetic analysis shows that the determined Slovenian CoV strains from this study are classified into four different previously determined species, bovine grouping only as BCoVs (n = 24) and into human HCoV-HKU1 (n = 34), HCoV-OC43 (n = 31) and HCoV 229E (n = 1)

Summary

Introduction

Coronaviruses (CoVs) are widely distributed pathogens associated with respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases in humans and animals [1]. Soon after the first SARS CoV epidemic, two additional human CoVs were described: HCoV-NL63 (Alphacoronavirus genus, Setracoronavirus subgenus) and HCoV-HKU1 (Betacoronavirus genus, Embecovirus subgenus). These newly discovered HCoVs mostly cause mild upper-respiratory-tract infections, and only in infants, immunocompromised patients; in elderly patients, CoVs can cause more severe respiratory disorders [6,7,8]. In 2012, a new CoV, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS CoV) (Betacoronavirus genus, Merbecovirus subgenus), was discovered from patients with a mysterious, fatal disease Both SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV cause severe respiratory diseases [9,10] and are of zoonotic origin [11,12]. CoV implies the need to monitor CoV associated with domestic animals in contact with humans

Methods

Results

Conclusion