Amplicon and Metagenomic Analysis of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Coronavirus and the Microbiome in Patients with Severe MERS

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) emerged in late 2012 in Saudi Arabia. The virus is a serious threat to people not only in the Middle East but also in the world and has been detected in over 27 countries. MERS-CoV is spreading in the Middle East and neighboring countries, and approximately 35% of reported patients with this virus have died. This is the most severe coronavirus infection so far described. Saudi Arabia is a destination for many millions of people in the world who visit for religious purposes (Umrah and Hajj), and so it is a very vulnerable area, which imposes unique challenges for effective control of this epidemic. The significance of our study is that clinical samples from patients with MERS were used for rapid in-depth sequencing and metagenomic analysis using long read length sequencing.