Metagenomic evidence for the coexistence of SARS and H1N1 in patients from 2007-2012 flu seasons

摘要: By re-analzying public metagenomic data from 101 patients infected with influenza A virus during the 2007-2012 H1N1 flu seasons in France, we identified 22 samples with SARS-CoV sequences. In 3 of them, the SARS genome sequences could be fully assembled out of each. These sequences are highly similar (99.99% and 99.7%) to the artificially constructed recombinant 5 SARS-CoV (SARSr-CoV) strains generated by the J. Craig Venter Institute in USA. Moreover, samples from different flu seasons have different SARS-CoV strains, and the divergence between these strains cannot be explained by natural evolution. Our study also shows that retrospective studies using public metagenomic data from past major epidemic outbreaks serves as a genomic strategy for the research of origins or spread of infectious diseases.