Discovery of Novel Alphacoronaviruses in European Rodents and Shrews

Tsoleridis, Theocharis; Onianwa, Okechukwu; Horncastle, Emma; Dayman, Emma; Zhu, Miaoran; Danjittrong, Taechasit; Wachtl, Marta; Behnke, Jerzy M.; Chapman, Sarah; Strong, Victoria; Dobbs, Phillipa; Ball, Jonathan K.; Tarlinton, Rachael E.; McClure, C. Patrick

Many animal and human CoV spillover events can be ultimately traced back to a bat reservoir [23] [24] [25] . Therefore it is important to determine whether or not there is any evidence to suggest that the rodent CoVs described here are related to those circulating in mainland European/UK bats [21, 26] . Although the sequences described in the bat analyses represented a shorter fragment of the ORF1ab gene, we were able to perform phylogenetic analyses with the novel rodent CoV sequence described here, and these comparisons showed that there was no evidence, based on phylogenetic clustering that the UK/European rodents were directly related to those present in bats (Figure 4) . The nearest relative was FIPV, which infects cats, although the rodent/shrew and cat sequences did fall within a larger cluster that contained coronaviruses isolated from pipistrelle bats. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that the novel rodent/shrew CoVs represent a recent and direct epizootic event from bats. However, more wide scale analyses of CoV infection of European mammal populations needs to be performed to fully understand their evolutionary history. phylogenetic clustering that the UK/European rodents were directly related to those present in bats ( Figure 4 ). The nearest relative was FIPV, which infects cats, although the rodent/shrew and cat sequences did fall within a larger cluster that contained coronaviruses isolated from pipistrelle bats. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that the novel rodent/shrew CoVs represent a recent and direct epizootic event from bats. However, more wide scale analyses of CoV infection of European mammal populations needs to be performed to fully understand their evolutionary history.