Molecular Evolution of MERS Coronavirus: Dromedaries as a Recent Intermediate Host or Long-Time Animal Reservoir?

Lau, Susanna K. P.; Wong, Antonio C. P.; Lau, Terrence C. K.; Woo, Patrick C. Y.

Among the 219 complete genomes of MERS-CoV, 151 were from Saudi Arabia (human, n = 73; dromedary, n = 78), 29 were from the UAE (human, n = 9; dromedary, n = 20), 4 were from Jordan (human, n = 4), 1 was from Egypt (dromedary, n = 1), 5 were from the United Kingdom (human, n = 5), 3 were from Qatar (human, n = 2; dromedary, n = 1), 3 were from the United States (human, n = 3), 2 were from France (human, n = 2), 2 were from Oman (human, n = 2), 1 was from Thailand (human, n = 1), 1 was from China (human, n = 1), and 17 were from South Korea (human, n = 17) (Figure 1 ). also suggested that these animals could be the hosts for the ancestor of MERS-CoV. However, it is still uncertain how and when the ancestor of MERS-CoV may have jumped from bats/hedgehogs to camels and humans.