Emergence of pathogenic coronaviruses in cats by homologous recombination between feline and canine coronaviruses

Yutaka Terada; Nobutaka Matsui; Keita Noguchi; Ryusei Kuwata; Hiroshi Shimoda; Takehisa Soma; Masami Mochizuki; Ken Maeda

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0106534

Emergence of pathogenic coronaviruses in cats by homologous recombination between feline and canine coronaviruses

PLoS One. 2014 Sep 2;9(9):e106534. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0106534. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Yutaka Terada¹, Nobutaka Matsui¹, Keita Noguchi¹, Ryusei Kuwata¹, Hiroshi Shimoda¹, Takehisa Soma², Masami Mochizuki³, Ken Maeda¹

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Veterinary Microbiology, Joint Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi, Japan.
² Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, Marupi Lifetech Co. Ltd., Osaka, Japan.
³ Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Joint Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, Japan.

Abstract

Type II feline coronavirus (FCoV) emerged via double recombination between type I FCoV and type II canine coronavirus (CCoV). In this study, two type I FCoVs, three type II FCoVs and ten type II CCoVs were genetically compared. The results showed that three Japanese type II FCoVs, M91-267, KUK-H/L and Tokyo/cat/130627, also emerged by homologous recombination between type I FCoV and type II CCoV and their parent viruses were genetically different from one another. In addition, the 3'-terminal recombination sites of M91-267, KUK-H/L and Tokyo/cat/130627 were different from one another within the genes encoding membrane and spike proteins, and the 5'-terminal recombination sites were also located at different regions of ORF1. These results indicate that at least three Japanese type II FCoVs emerged independently. Sera from a cat experimentally infected with type I FCoV was unable to neutralize type II CCoV infection, indicating that cats persistently infected with type I FCoV may be superinfected with type II CCoV. Our previous study reported that few Japanese cats have antibody against type II FCoV. All of these observations suggest that type II FCoV emerged inside the cat body and is unable to readily spread among cats, indicating that these recombination events for emergence of pathogenic coronaviruses occur frequently.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Antibodies, Neutralizing / blood
Antibodies, Viral / blood
Cat Diseases / virology*
Cats
Coronavirus Infections / veterinary*
Coronavirus Infections / virology
Coronavirus, Canine / classification
Coronavirus, Canine / genetics*
Coronavirus, Canine / pathogenicity*
Coronavirus, Feline / classification
Coronavirus, Feline / genetics*
Coronavirus, Feline / pathogenicity*
DNA, Viral / genetics
Dogs
Genes, Viral
Homologous Recombination
Japan
Molecular Sequence Data
Phylogeny
Reassortant Viruses / genetics*
Reassortant Viruses / pathogenicity*
Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid

Substances

Antibodies, Neutralizing
Antibodies, Viral
DNA, Viral

Associated data

GENBANK/AB781788
GENBANK/AB781789
GENBANK/AB781790
GENBANK/AB781791
GENBANK/AB781792
GENBANK/AB781793
GENBANK/AB781794
GENBANK/AB781795
GENBANK/AB781797
GENBANK/AB781798
GENBANK/AB781799
GENBANK/AB781800
GENBANK/AB781801
GENBANK/AB781802
GENBANK/AB781803
GENBANK/AB781804
GENBANK/AB781805
GENBANK/AB781806
GENBANK/AB781807
GENBANK/AB781808
GENBANK/AB781809
GENBANK/AB781810
GENBANK/AB781811
GENBANK/AB781812
GENBANK/AB781813
GENBANK/AB781814
GENBANK/AB781815
GENBANK/AB907624
GENBANK/AB907625
GENBANK/AB907626
GENBANK/AB907627
GENBANK/AB907628
GENBANK/AB907629
GENBANK/AB907630
GENBANK/AB907631
GENBANK/AB907632
GENBANK/AB907633
GENBANK/AB907634

Grants and funding

This work was supported by KAKENHI Grant Number 24658257. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.