Gao Lei
School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University, No. 55 Zhongshan Avenue West, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510631, Guangdong Province, China.
Open Life Sci. 2021 Mar 16;16(1):252-254. doi: 10.1515/biol-2021-0027. eCollection 2021.
Coronaviruses have spread widely among humans and other animals, but not all coronaviruses carried by specific animals can directly infect other kinds of animals. Viruses from most animal hosts need an intermediate host before they can spread widely among humans. Under natural conditions, coronaviruses do not rapidly change from infecting wild animals as intermediate hosts and to spreading widely among humans. The intermediate host might be the animals captured or bred for the purpose of cross-breeding with domesticated species for improvement of the breed. These animals differ from wild animals at the environmental and genetic levels. It is an important direction to study the semi-wild animals domesticated by humans in search for intermediate hosts of viruses widely spread among humans.
冠状病毒已在人类和其他动物中广泛传播，但特定动物携带的并非所有冠状病毒都能直接感染其他种类的动物。大多数动物宿主的病毒在能够在人类中广泛传播之前需要一个中间宿主。在自然条件下，冠状病毒不会迅速从以野生动物为中间宿主感染转变为在人类中广泛传播。中间宿主可能是为与驯化物种杂交以改良品种而捕获或饲养的动物。这些动物在环境和基因层面与野生动物不同。研究人类驯化的半野生动物以寻找在人类中广泛传播的病毒的中间宿主是一个重要方向。
