Isolation of a rhesus calicivirus that can replicate in human cells

Recoviruses (rhesus enteric caliciviruses) are members of the Caliciviridae family. They are a valuable model for studying human caliciviruses such as noroviruses. It has been suggested that some recoviruses may infect humans, which necessitates detailed studies on the cell type tropism of recoviruses. For the recoviruses that have been cultured to date, successful growth has only been reported in monkey kidney cell lines, precluding their use to study virus interactions with human cells. We isolated and characterized a new recovirus, Recovirus Mo/TG30/2012, from monkey stool which grew efficiently in the monkey kidney cell line LLC-MK2. Notably, the virus can infect and replicate in several human cell lines derived from different organs. The ability to infect a human cell culture system with a recovirus expands our understanding of the potential for spillover to humans as well as increases the value of recoviruses as a model of human caliciviruses.