When SARS was discovered in 2003 it was only the third human coronavirus known, but by the end of 2012 a further three have been identified the last now known as MERS; what coronavirus is MERS most closely related to?
Pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5 seen in Group C betaCov's to which MERS-CoV is most closely related. Pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5 Pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5 (Bat-CoV HKU5) is an enveloped, positive sense, single-stranded RNA mammalian Group 2 betacoronavirus discovered in Japanese Pipistrellus in Hong Kong. This strain of coronavirus is closely related to the newly identified novel MERS-CoV that is responsible for the 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreaks in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. The exact means of transmission to humans is not yet well known. However, it has been demonstrated that betaCoV's including HKU5 have
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus Kingdom, South Korea, the United States, Mainland China, Thailand, and the Philippines. MERS-CoV is one of several viruses identified by WHO as a likely cause of a future epidemic. They list it for urgent research and development. The virus MERS-CoV is a new member of the beta group of coronavirus, "Betacoronavirus", lineage C. MERS-CoV genomes are phylogenetically classified into two clades, clade A and B. The earliest cases of MERS were of clade A clusters (EMC/2012 and Jordan-N3/2012), and new cases are genetically distinct (clade B). MERS-CoV is distinct from SARS coronavirus and distinct from the common-cold coronavirus and known