Complete Genome Analysis of Canine Respiratory Coronavirus

The canine respiratory coronavirus (CRCoV) K37 strain of the family Coronaviridae, group 2, was isolated in South Korea. Its genome was analyzed by nucleotide sequencing and was determined to have 31,029 bp. The small open reading frames situated between the spike and envelope genes of most of the CRCoV strains (except the CRCoV 4180 strain) were found to encode three nonstructural proteins (4.9 kDa, 2.7 kDa, and 12.8 kDa), while those of bovine coronavirus (BCoV) encode another three nonstructural proteins (4.9 kDa, 4.8 kDa, and 12.7 kDa) and those of a recently isolated bovine respiratory coronavirus (BRCoV) were found to encode only two nonstructural proteins (4.9 kDa and 12.7 kDa). The differences in the genes encoding these small nonstructural proteins may be associated with the emergence of highly similar viruses in different hosts.