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Volume 19, Number 10—October 2013
Letter

Close Relative of Human Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus in Bat, South Africa

Ndapewa Laudika Ithete, Samantha Stoffberg, Victor Max Corman, Veronika M. Cottontail, Leigh Rosanne Richards, M. Corrie Schoeman, Christian Drosten, Jan Felix Drexler1Comments to Author , and Wolfgang Preiser1
Author affiliations: University of Stellenbosch/National Health Laboratory Service, Tygerberg, South Africa (N.L. Ithete, S. Stoffberg, W. Preiser); University of Bonn Medical Centre, Bonn, Germany (V.M. Corman, C. Drosten, J.F. Drexler); University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany (V.M. Cottontail); Durban Natural Science Museum, Durban, South Africa (L.R. Richards); University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban (M.C. Schoeman)

Main Article

Figure

Partial RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene phylogeny, including the novel betacoronavirus from a Neoromicia zuluensis bat in South Africa (GenBank accession no. KC869678 for both partial RdRp and spike gene sequences). The Bayesian phylogeny was done on a translated 816-nt RdRp gene sequence fragment, as described (5). MrBayes V3.1 (http://mrbayes.sourceforge.net/) was used with a WAG substitution model assumption over 2,000,000 generations sampled every 100 steps, resulting in 20,000 tree

Figure. . Partial RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene phylogeny, including the novel betacoronavirus from a Neoromicia zuluensis bat in South Africa (GenBank accession no. KC869678 for both partial RdRp and spike gene sequences). The Bayesian phylogeny was done on a translated 816-nt RdRp gene sequence fragment, as described (5). MrBayes V3.1 (http://mrbayes.sourceforge.net/) was used with a WAG substitution model assumption over 2,000,000 generations sampled every 100 steps, resulting in 20,000 trees, of which 25% were discarded as burn-in. A whale gammacoronavirus was used as an outgroup. The novel N. zuluensis bat virus is highlighted in gray. Values at deep nodes represent statistical support from posterior probabilities. Only values >0.9 are shown. Coronavirus clades are depicted to the right of taxa. Scale bar represents genetic distance. MERS-CoV, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus; SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome; Bt-CoV, bat coronavirus; HCoV, human coronavirus, MHV, mouse hepatitis virus; FCoV, feline coronavirus; TGEV, transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus.

Main Article

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1These authors contributed equally to this article.

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