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This book summarizes the keynote and plenary speeches and posters of the “Xth
International Nidovirus Symposium: Toward Control of SARS and Other Nidovirus
Diseases” that was held in Colorado Springs, Colorado, June 25–30, 2005. The nine
previous meetings of scientists investigating the molecular biology and pathogenesis of
coronaviruses, toroviruses, arteriviruses, and okaviruses were generally held every 3 years
since the first meeting was convened in Wurzburg, Germany, in October, 1980. The Xth
International Symposium was held just 2 years after the IXth International Symposium
(Nido2003) in The Netherlands, because of the tremendously increased research on
called SARS-CoV. A record 225 scientists from 14 countries attended the Xth International
Nidovirus Symposium, and important advances in every aspect of nidovirus molecular
biology and pathogenesis were reported and discussed. The meeting was divided into 12
sessions, with keynote speakers providing a general review of research pertinent to each
one. This volume is a collection of scientific papers presented at the symposium.
Once a coronavirus was recognized as the etiological agent of SARS, intensive work
by many investigators resulted in determination of the sequence of the virus, engineering
of reverse genetics systems, and identification of the host cell receptor used by the virus.
With the increased interest in coronaviruses, new members of the family associated with
human disease were identified. Most notably, HCoV-NL63 and HCoV-HKU1 were
recently recognized as important agents of human upper and lower respiratory tract
disease. With the identification of new members of the nidovirus family, it became
important to determine the relationship between these newly recognized viruses and
previously classified nidoviruses. The nidovirus group of the International Committee for
Taxonomy of Viruses proposed a taxonomic tree of the nidoviruses that is reproduced
here (Figure 1). The structure of the viral nucleocapsid, number of subgenomic RNAs
nidoviruses, although their replication strategies are very similar. This information,
coupled with sequencing data, is used to place the newly identified viruses into the pre
existing data set. As examples, HCoV-NL63 has been classified as a group 1b
coronavirus, while SARS-CoV is tentatively classified as a distant member of the group
2 family (group 2b). Other newly identified nidoviruses, including those infecting bats,
have been similarly analyzed and classified. |
