Complete genome characterisation of a novel coronavirus associated with severe human respiratory disease in Wuhan, China

Abstract

Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, such as SARS, MERS, Zika and highly pathogenic influenza present a major threat to public health1–3. Despite intense research effort, how, when and where novel diseases appear are still the source of considerable uncertainly. A severe respiratory disease was recently reported in the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, China. At the time of writing, at least 62 suspected cases have been reported since the first patient was hospitalized on December 12nd 2019. Epidemiological investigation by the local Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggested that the outbreak was associated with a sea food market in Wuhan. We studied seven patients who were workers at the market, and collected bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from one patient who exhibited a severe respiratory syndrome including fever, dizziness and cough, and who was admitted to Wuhan Central Hospital on December 26th 2019. Next generation metagenomic RNA sequencing4 identified a novel RNA virus from the family Coronaviridae designed WH-Human-1 coronavirus (WHCV). Phylogenetic analysis of the complete viral genome (29,903 nucleotides) revealed that WHCV was most closely related (89.1% nucleotide similarity similarity) to a group of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-like coronaviruses (genus Betacoronavirus, subgenus Sarbecovirus) previously sampled from bats in China and that have a history of genomic recombination. This outbreak highlights the ongoing capacity of viral spill-over from animals to cause severe disease in humans.