TWiV 258: Hedging our bats

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello , Alan Dove , Rich Condit , Kathy Spindler , and Matt Frieman Matt joins the TWiV team to discuss the discovery of a SARS-like coronavirus in bats that can infect human cells, and what is going on with MERS-coronavirus. Links for this episode S ARS-like virus in bats binds ACE2 (Nature) Bat SARS-like virus that infects human cells (virology blog) Coronavirus infections update (WHO) Lack of MERS coronavirus antibodies in humans (EID) Mice not susceptible to MERS-CoV (J Gen Virol) MERS-CoV case imported into Spain MERS-CoV like virus in European hedgehogs (J Virol) DPP4 amino acids positively selected in bats (Virol J) Image credit: Richie Frieman Letters read on TWiV 258 Weekly Science Picks Kathy - Optical illusion (YouTube) Alan - Amboceptor Matt - Reply all by Richie Frieman ( audio sample ) Vincent - The microbiology of beer Listener Pick of the Week Cassie - NeatoShop Peter - Synapse evolution with Seth Grant (BSP 101) Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]