Discussion
We have deposited information on the SARS-CoV-2 USA-WA1/2020 viral strain described here into the Biodefense and Emerging Infections Research Resources Repository (https://www.beiresources.org) reagent resources (American Type Culture Collection, https://www.atcc.org) and the World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses, University of Texas Medical Branch (https://www.utmb.edu/wrceva), to serve as the SARS-CoV-2 reference strain for the United States. The SARS-CoV-2 fourth passage virus has been sequenced and maintains a nucleotide sequence identical to that of the original clinical strain from the United States. These deposits make this virus strain available to the domestic and international public health, academic, and pharmaceutical sectors for basic research, diagnostic development, antiviral testing, and vaccine development. We hope broad access will expedite countermeasure development and testing and enable a better understanding of the transmissibility and pathogenesis of this novel emerging virus.
Acknowledgments
We thank Mavanur R. Suresh for providing plasmid pBM302, which expresses the SARS-CoV nucleocapsid protein.
The reagent described is available through the Biodefense and Emerging Infections Research Resources Repository, National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health: SARS-related coronavirus 2, isolate USA-WA1/2020, NR-52281.
This study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Aging and the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (U19AI100625 and R00AG049092 to V.D.M., R24AI120942 to S.C.W., and AI99107 and AI114657 to S.M.); a STARs Award provided by the University of Texas System to V.D.M.; the Institute for Human Infections and Immunity at the University of Texas Medical Branch (S.M.); and trainee funding provided by the McLaughlin Fellowship Fund at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2020;26(6):1266-1273. © 2020 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
