Discovery, diversity and evolution of novel coronaviruses sampled from rodents in China

- A novel coronavirus (CoV) was identified in rodents from China.
- Three species of CoVs are co-circulating in rodents in Zhejiang province, China.
- Recombination events were observed in the newly identified rodent CoVs.

Although rodents are important reservoirs for RNA viruses, to date only one species of rodent coronavirus (CoV) has been identified. Herein, we describe a new CoV, denoted Lucheng Rn rat coronavirus (LRNV), and novel variants of two Betacoronavirus species termed Longquan Aa mouse coronavirus (LAMV) and Longquan Rl rat coronavirus (LRLV), that were identified in a survey of 1465 rodents sampled in China during 2011-2013. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that LAMV and LRLV fell into lineage A of the genus Betacoronavirus, which included CoVs discovered in humans and domestic and wild animals. In contrast, LRNV harbored by Rattus norvegicus formed a distinct lineage within the genus Alphacoronavirus in the 3CLpro, RdRp, and Hel gene trees, but formed a more divergent lineage in the N and S gene trees, indicative of a recombinant origin. Additional recombination events were identified in LRLV. Together, these data suggest that rodents may carry additional unrecognized CoVs.