Molecular Advances in Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-associated Coronavirus (SARS-CoV)

Chow, Ken Yan Ching; Hon, Chung Chau; Hui, Raymond Kin Hi; Wong, Raymond Tsz Yeung; Yip, Chi Wai; Zeng, Fanya; Leung, Frederick Chi Ching

The development of microarray technology for viral discovery was firstly described by Wang et al in 2002 (90 ) . The capability of the rapid high throughout screening of unknown viral pathogen gives it great potential to be used as a diagnostic tool. In the identification of the SARS-CoV, Wang et al (11 ) employed the use of an improved microarray platform, which comprised conserved 70mers from each of the 1,000 viruses, to characterize the coronavirus genome. Four hybridizing oligonucleotides from Astroviridae which share the s2m motif and three from Coronaviridae sharing conserved ORF1ab fragment were firstly recognized in the experiment. The sequence recovered from the surface of the microarray further confirmed that it is a member of the coronavirus family. The identity of the SARS-CoV was confirmed within 24 hours, and this feat was followed by the partial sequencing of the novel virus a few days later. Such technique demonstrated a rapid and accurate means of unknown virus characterization through genetic data.