The SARS-like coronaviruses: the role of bats and evolutionary relationships with SARS coronavirus

Abstract

Bats represent an order of great evolutionary success, with elevated geographical diffusion and species diversity. This order harbors viruses of high variability which have a great possibility of acquiring the capacity of infecting other animals,including humans. Bats are the natural reservoir for several viruses genetically closely related to the SARScoronavirus which is the etiological agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a human epidemic which emerged in China in 2002-2003. In the last few years, it has been discovered that the association between coronaviruses and bats is a worldwide phenomenon, and it has been hypothesised that all mammalian coronaviruses were derived from ancestral viruses residing in bats. This review analyzes the role of bats as a reservoir of zoonotic viruses focusing more extensively on SARS-related coronaviruses and taking into account the role of African and European strains in the evolutionary history of these viruses.