ABSTRACT
KATHRYN V.HOLMES1 AND GABRIELA S.DVEKSLER2
CORONAVIRUSES
Coronaviruses are enveloped RNA viruses with a helical nucleocapsid containing a plussense RNA genome of approximately 32 kb (Holmes and Lai, 1996). Coronaviruses cause enzootic and epizootic respiratory and/or enteric diseases of many species of domestic animals and birds, as well as 15 to 30% of upper respiratory infections or colds in humans. In general, each coronavirus causes disease in only one host species, and infection is often limited to the epithelial cells of the respiratory or enteric tracts. Thus, Coronaviruses exhibit strong species specificity and tissue tropism. To determine the molecular bases for these tropisms, our laboratory has characterized the receptors for several Coronaviruses and explored the biological significance of virus receptor specificity.
