New MERS-CoV genomes don't impact on existing PCR assays.

Update: #1 01NOV2015

I've looked at my latest nucleotide sequence alignments that incorporate the new genomes.

Of particular interest to public health laboratories worldwide is that the ORF1a,ORF1b and E gene real-time PCR assays described by Corman and crew (Sept 2012 and Dec 2012), still match their targets with 100% identity - no mismatches and thus no change in detection efficiency expected.

There is a mismatch (C:T) in the NSeq-Rev primer and the RdRpSeq-Rev primer, with some/all MERS-CoV strains, but nothing significant given its position within the primer.

These real-time RT-PCR (screening) and conventional PCR (sequencing and genotyping) assays are in widespread use and are part of the WHO testing algorithm (see 050613 post).

Good targets and well chosen, clearly. Not that one would expect any less from the authors of those two papers......

Multiple alignment of human MERS-CoV variant genomes and
reverse transcription real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-rtPCR)
assays from Corman et al.[1,2]
Alignments made using Geneious Pro. v6.
Click on image to enlarge.

Reference...

1. Detection of a novel human coronavirus by real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction.
   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23041020
2. Assays for laboratory confirmation of novel human coronavirus (hCoV-EMC) infections.
   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23231891

Updates...

1. Added graphic back.