Emerging Infectious Diseases (Dec 2020)

Detection and Characterization of Bat Sarbecovirus Phylogenetically Related to SARS-CoV-2, Japan

  • Shin Murakami,
  • Tomoya Kitamura,
  • Jin Suzuki,
  • Ryouta Sato,
  • Toshiki Aoi,
  • Marina Fujii,
  • Hiromichi Matsugo,
  • Haruhiko Kamiki,
  • Hiroho Ishida,
  • Akiko Takenaka-Uema,
  • Masayuki Shimojima,
  • Taisuke Horimoto

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2612.203386
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 26, no. 12
pp. 3025 – 3029

Abstract

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Epidemiology of bat Betacoronavirus, subgenus Sarbecovirus is largely unknown, especially outside China. We detected a sarbecovirus phylogenetically related to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 from Rhinolophus cornutus bats in Japan. The sarbecovirus’ spike protein specifically recognizes angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 of R. cornutus, but not humans, as an entry receptor.

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