Chiroptera is the second largest mammalian order in terms of species number.So far,there are more than 1400 known bat species across the six continents,making up 20%of the total number of mammalian species.1 Bats are ...Chiroptera is the second largest mammalian order in terms of species number.So far,there are more than 1400 known bat species across the six continents,making up 20%of the total number of mammalian species.1 Bats are well recognized to be the hosts of a number of highly pathogenic viruses,such as rabies virus,Hendra virus,Nipah virus,and Ebola virus,for a long time.2–5 Shortly after the severe acute respiratory syndrome(SARS)epidemic which originated from Southern China in 2003,we discovered that bats were the ultimate reservoir of SARSrelated coronavirus(SARSr-CoV).6 In 2012,the cause of the even more fatal Middle East respiratory syndrome(MERS)which originated from the Middle East was also found to be another CoV,MERS-CoV.7 The ancestor of MERS-CoV was also from bats.8,9 Recently,the COVID-19 outbreak that has already officially infected more than 13 million patients with more than 574000 deaths was also confirmed to be due to another betacoronavirus,named SARS coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2),from bats.10 Moreover,bat cell lines have also been harvested and propagated for the study of SARS-CoV,MERS-CoV,and SARS-CoV-2.展开更多
基金the Theme-based Research Scheme(Grant number:T11/707/15)。
文摘Chiroptera is the second largest mammalian order in terms of species number.So far,there are more than 1400 known bat species across the six continents,making up 20%of the total number of mammalian species.1 Bats are well recognized to be the hosts of a number of highly pathogenic viruses,such as rabies virus,Hendra virus,Nipah virus,and Ebola virus,for a long time.2–5 Shortly after the severe acute respiratory syndrome(SARS)epidemic which originated from Southern China in 2003,we discovered that bats were the ultimate reservoir of SARSrelated coronavirus(SARSr-CoV).6 In 2012,the cause of the even more fatal Middle East respiratory syndrome(MERS)which originated from the Middle East was also found to be another CoV,MERS-CoV.7 The ancestor of MERS-CoV was also from bats.8,9 Recently,the COVID-19 outbreak that has already officially infected more than 13 million patients with more than 574000 deaths was also confirmed to be due to another betacoronavirus,named SARS coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2),from bats.10 Moreover,bat cell lines have also been harvested and propagated for the study of SARS-CoV,MERS-CoV,and SARS-CoV-2.
