MERS coronaviruses from camels in Africa exhibit region-dependent genetic diversity

Chu, Daniel K. W.; Hui, Kenrie P. Y.; Perera, Ranawaka A. P. M.; Miguel, Eve; Niemeyer, Daniela; Zhao, Jincun; Channappanavar, Rudragouda; Dudas, Gytis; Oladipo, Jamiu O.; Traoré, Amadou; Fassi-Fihri, Ouafaa; Ali, Abraham; Demissié, Getnet F.; Muth, Doreen; Chan, Michael C. W.; Nicholls, John M.; Meyerholz, David K.; Kuranga, Sulyman A.; Mamo, Gezahegne; Zhou, Ziqi; So, Ray T. Y.; Hemida, Maged G.; Webby, Richard J.; Roger, Francois; Rambaut, Andrew; Poon, Leo L. M.; Perlman, Stanley; Drosten, Christian; Chevalier, Veronique; Peiris, Malik

four MERS-CoV isolates, but levels remained markedly lower than in H5N1-infected cells. IFN-β, IFN-λ1/IL-29, and IP-10 (CXCL-10) mRNA in BF785-infected cells was significantly higher than that seen in EMC but was not higher than in AH13-infected cells. Nig1657-infected cells had significantly lower levels of IFN-β, IFN-λ1/IL-29, IP10 (CXCL-10), ISG15, and MX1 mRNA compared with AH13-or BF785-infected cells (Fig. 3 B-F) . IP-10 (CXCL10) protein levels in the supernatants of the four MERS-CoV-infected cells were below the limits of detection or were very low compared with H5N1-infected cells (Fig. 3H) . We also investigated the sensitivity of the four MERS-CoV to increasing concentrations of IFN-β in Vero cells and found no biologically relevant difference between the Saudi Arabian and African viruses (Fig. S7 ). All four MERS-CoV were markedly more sensitive to IFN-β than has been reported for Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) (16) .