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Rescue of SARS-CoV-2 from a Single Bacterial Artificial Chromosome

2020; American Society for Microbiology; Volume: 11; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1128/mbio.02168-20

2161-2129

Chengjin Ye, Kevin Chiem, Jun‐Gyu Park, Fatai S. Oladunni, Roy Nelson Platt, Tim Anderson, Fernando Almazán, Juan Carlos de la Torre, Luis Martínez‐Sobrido,

Viral gastroenteritis research and epidemiology

The pandemic coronavirus (CoV) disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a major threat to global human health. To date, there are no approved prophylactics or therapeutics available for COVID-19. Reverse genetics is a powerful approach to understand factors involved in viral pathogenesis, antiviral screening, and vaccine development. In this study, we describe the feasibility of generating recombinant SARS-CoV-2 (rSARS-CoV-2) by transfection of a single bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC). Importantly, rSARS-CoV-2 possesses the same phenotype as the natural isolate in vitro and in vivo . This is the first description of a BAC-based reverse genetics system for SARS-CoV-2 and the first time that an rSARS-CoV-2 isolate has been shown to be phenotypically identical to a natural isolate in a validated animal model of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The BAC-based reverse genetics approach will facilitate the study of SARS-CoV-2 and the development of prophylactics and therapeutics for the treatment of COVID-19.