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Comparative Study
. 2020 Jul;583(7815):286-289.
doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2313-x. Epub 2020 May 7.

Isolation of SARS-CoV-2-related coronavirus from Malayan pangolins

Kangpeng Xiao #  1   2 , Junqiong Zhai #  3 , Yaoyu Feng  1   2 , Niu Zhou  3 , Xu Zhang  1   2 , Jie-Jian Zou  4 , Na Li  1   2 , Yaqiong Guo  1   2 , Xiaobing Li  1 , Xuejuan Shen  1 , Zhipeng Zhang  1 , Fanfan Shu  1   2 , Wanyi Huang  1   2 , Yu Li  5 , Ziding Zhang  5 , Rui-Ai Chen  1   6 , Ya-Jiang Wu  3 , Shi-Ming Peng  3 , Mian Huang  3 , Wei-Jun Xie  3 , Qin-Hui Cai  3 , Fang-Hui Hou  4 , Wu Chen  7 , Lihua Xiao  8   9 , Yongyi Shen  10   11
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Comparative Study

Isolation of SARS-CoV-2-related coronavirus from Malayan pangolins

Kangpeng Xiao et al. Nature. 2020 Jul.

Erratum in

Abstract

The current outbreak of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) poses unprecedented challenges to global health1. The new coronavirus responsible for this outbreak-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-shares high sequence identity to SARS-CoV and a bat coronavirus, RaTG132. Although bats may be the reservoir host for a variety of coronaviruses3,4, it remains unknown whether SARS-CoV-2 has additional host species. Here we show that a coronavirus, which we name pangolin-CoV, isolated from a Malayan pangolin has 100%, 98.6%, 97.8% and 90.7% amino acid identity with SARS-CoV-2 in the E, M, N and S proteins, respectively. In particular, the receptor-binding domain of the S protein of pangolin-CoV is almost identical to that of SARS-CoV-2, with one difference in a noncritical amino acid. Our comparative genomic analysis suggests that SARS-CoV-2 may have originated in the recombination of a virus similar to pangolin-CoV with one similar to RaTG13. Pangolin-CoV was detected in 17 out of the 25 Malayan pangolins that we analysed. Infected pangolins showed clinical signs and histological changes, and circulating antibodies against pangolin-CoV reacted with the S protein of SARS-CoV-2. The isolation of a coronavirus from pangolins that is closely related to SARS-CoV-2 suggests that these animals have the potential to act as an intermediate host of SARS-CoV-2. This newly identified coronavirus from pangolins-the most-trafficked mammal in the illegal wildlife trade-could represent a future threat to public health if wildlife trade is not effectively controlled.

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