Murine coronavirus


Murine coronavirus is a species of coronavirus which infects mice. It is an enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus which enters its host cell by binding to the CEACAM1 receptor. It has, like other coronaviruses from genus Betacoronavirus, subgenus Embecovirus, an additional hemagglutinin esterase gene.
The Murine coronavirus is a coronavirus that causes an epidemic murine illness with high mortality, especially among colonies of laboratory mice. Prior to the discovery of SARS-CoV, M-CoV had been the best-studied coronavirus both in vivo and in vitro as well as at the molecular level. Some strains of M-CoV cause a progressive demyelinating encephalitis in mice which has been used as a murine model for multiple sclerosis. Significant research efforts have been focused on elucidating the viral pathogenesis of these animal coronaviruses, especially by virologists interested in veterinary and zoonotic diseases.
A feature of the MHV is that many strains have the hemagglutinin-esterase gene turned into a pseudogene. This does not, however, apply to M-CoVs in general, as other members like PV retain a functional version of this gene.

RNA-RNA recombination

can occur when at least two RNA viral genomes are present in the same infected host cell. RNA-RNA recombination between different strains of the murine coronavirus was found to occur at a very high frequency both in tissue culture and in the mouse central nervous system. These findings suggest that RNA-RNA recombination may play a significant role in the natural evolution and neuropathogenesis of coronaviruses. The mechanism of recombination appears to involve template switching during viral genome replication, a process referred to as copy choice recombination.

Strains

, which is a strain Rat coronavirus, is highly infectious coronavirus of laboratory rats, which can be transmitted between individuals by direct contact and indirectly by aerosol. Acute infections have high morbidity and tropism for the salivary, lachrymal and harderian glands. Rabbit enteric coronavirus causes acute gastrointestinal disease and diarrhea in young European rabbits. Mortality rates are high.