Little is known regarding the molecular epidemiology of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) circulating in dromedaries outside Saudi Arabia. To address this knowledge gap, we sequenced 10 complete genomes of MERS-CoVs isolated from 2 live and 8 dead dromedaries from different regions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Phylogenetic analysis revealed one novel clade A strain, the first detected in the UAE, and nine clade B strains. Strain D998/15 had a distinct phylogenetic position within clade A, being more closely related to the dromedary isolate NRCE-HKU205 from Egypt than to the human isolates EMC/2012 and Jordan-N3/2012. A comparison of predicted protein sequences also demonstrated the existence of two clade A lineages with unique amino acid substitutions, A1 (EMC/2012 and Jordan-N3/2012) and A2 (D998/15 and NRCE-HKU205), circulating in humans and camels, respectively. The nine clade B isolates belong to three distinct lineages: B1, B3 and B5. Two B3 strains, D1271/15 and D1189.1/15, showed evidence of recombination between lineages B4 and B5 in ORF1ab. Molecular clock analysis dated the time of the most recent common ancestor (tMRCA) of clade A to March 2011 and that of clade B to November 2011. Our data support a polyphyletic origin of MERS-CoV in dromedaries and the co-circulation of diverse MERS-CoVs including recombinant strains in the UAE.
【저자키워드】 United Arab Emirates, MERS, Middle East respiratory syndrome Coronavirus, novel, dromedary camels, clade A, polyphyletic, 【초록키워드】 knowledge, Human, Genome, MERS-CoV, Saudi Arabia, Region, Molecular epidemiology, Lineage, Recombination, clade, Strains, Evidence, Analysis, strain, amino acid substitutions, ORF1ab, Phylogenetic, Middle East, Support, circulating, respiratory syndrome coronavirus, protein sequence, dead, TMRCA, Complete, isolate, predicted, sequenced, nine, unique, demonstrated, United Arab Emirate, 【제목키워드】 Isolation, clade, MERS coronavirus, United Arab Emirate,