Lorlane Le Targa

1 Introduction Coronaviruses affect both humans and other animals [1]. Human coronaviruses encompass so-named endemic, or seasonal coronaviruses, including HCoV-OC43, HKU1, NL63, and 229E, as well as epidemic or pandemic coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2 [2, 3]. Endemic coronaviruses are most often responsible for asymptomatic infections or mild upper respiratory diseases. HCoV-OC43 was, in several studies, the most frequently diagnosed human endemic coronavirus [4-9].

Abstract HCoV-OC43 genomes and their evolution are scarcely studied worldwide and in France with only 361 genomes available as of October 2023. Here we implemented an in-house PCR amplification system to obtain retrospectively by next-generation sequencing then analyze HCoV-OC43 genomes for infections diagnosed with this virus in southern France between 02/2017 and 10/2022.

1 Introduction Seven coronaviruses are currently known to cause respiratory infections in humans, of which four (human coronaviruses [HCoV]-OC43, 229E, NL63, and HKU1) are endemic [1, 2]. Coronaviruses have a wide host spectrum including humans and nonhuman animals, and are capable of crossing the species barriers, such as for the case of HCoV-HKU1 that originated from a murine host [3].