A collaborative research project involving the University of East Anglia, the Zoological Society of London and Public Health England has identified a novel coronavirus in UK bats. It is the first time that a such a virus has been discovered in the UK.
The team sequenced the novel sarbecovirus (RhGB01) from British horseshoe bats. Sarbecoviruses are the viral subgenus containing SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2.
Within the spike protein receptor binding domain, but excluding the receptor binding motif, RhGB01 had amino acid homology of 77 per cent with SARS-CoV-2 and 81 per cent with SARS-CoV.
The virus lacked human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 inhibitor binding ability, and hence, the authors said, it is unlikely to be transmitted to humans without mutation, but it does present opportunity for SARS-CoV-2 and other sarbecovirus homologous recombination.
Study co-author, Prof Diana Bell, an expert in emerging zoonotic diseases from University of East Anglia’s School of Biological Sciences, said: "Our research extends both the geographic and species ranges of these types of viruses and suggests their more widespread presence across more than 90 species of horseshoe bats."
"These bats will almost certainly have harboured this virus for a very long time - probably many thousands of years. We didn't know about it before because this is the first time that such tests have been carried out in UK bats."
"We already know that there are different coronaviruses in many other mammal species too," she said. "This is a case of 'seek and you will find."
While research into the origins of SARS-CoV-2 has focussed on horseshoe bats, Prof Bell pointed out that there are 1400 other bat species and they comprise 20 per cent of known mammals.
"Our findings highlight the need for robust genotype testing for these types of viruses in bat populations around the world. And it raises an important question about what other animals carry these types of viruses."
