Coronaviruses in the Sea

Gideon J Mordecai; Ian Hewson

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.01795

Coronaviruses in the Sea

Front Microbiol. 2020 Jul 24:11:1795. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.01795. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Gideon J Mordecai¹, Ian Hewson²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
² Department of Microbiology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States.

Abstract

Interest in coronaviruses because of the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has generated concern about their occurrence and persistence in aquatic habitats. Coronaviruses are not quantitatively significant constituents of marine virioplankton. Members of the Nidovirales (to which human coronaviruses belong) infect marine mammals, teleosts and possibly invertebrates, and human coronaviruses may persist in marine plankton receiving wastewater effluent. However, virions likely experience significant particle and infectivity decay rates in surface seawater, similar to other enveloped RNA viruses.

Keywords: Nidovirales; coronavirus; disease; virioplankton; virome.

Publication types

Review