Mouse adapted SARS-CoV (MA15) has been previously described [38] (link) and was grown in Vero E6 cells and stored at −80 °C. MERS-CoV (Jordan) was obtained from the NIH in conjunction with AFHSC-GEIS and NAMRU-3, with special assistance from Dr. Mohareb. All experiments with live virus were performed under biosafety level 3 conditions at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
MERS-CoV (Jordan) Spike protein is 99.8% identical to the MERS-CoV (Al Hassa1) Spike protein sequence used in the nanoparticle cloning. We consider MERS-CoV (Al Hassa1) and MERS-CoV (Jordan) to be homologous in their Spike proteins. SARS-CoV (Urbani) Spike protein is 99.9% identical to the SARS-CoV (MA15) Spike protein sequence used in the nanoparticle cloning. We consider SARS-CoV (Urbani) and SARS-CoV (MA15) Spike proteins to be homologous.