| horizontal gene transfer and recombination analysis of sars-cov-2 genes helps discover its close relatives and shed light on its origin. | the sars-cov-2 pandemic is one of the greatest global medical and social challenges that have emerged in recent history. human coronavirus strains discovered during previous sars outbreaks have been hypothesized to pass from bats to humans using intermediate hosts, e.g. civets for sars-cov and camels for mers-cov. the discovery of an intermediate host of sars-cov-2 and the identification of specific mechanism of its emergence in humans are topics of primary evolutionary importance. in this stu ... | 2021 | 33514319 |
| binding and molecular basis of the bat coronavirus ratg13 virus to ace2 in humans and other species. | severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2) has been spreading worldwide, causing a global pandemic. bat-origin ratg13 is currently the most phylogenetically related virus. here we obtained the complex structure of the ratg13 receptor binding domain (rbd) with human ace2 (hace2) and evaluated binding of ratg13 rbd to 24 additional ace2 orthologs. by substituting residues in the ratg13 rbd with their counterparts in the sars-cov-2 rbd, we found that residue 501, the major positio ... | 2021 | 34139177 |
| the rhinolophus affinis bat ace2 and multiple animal orthologs are functional receptors for bat coronavirus ratg13 and sars-cov-2. | bat coronavirus (cov) ratg13 shares the highest genome sequence identity with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2) among all known coronaviruses, and also uses human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (hace2) for virus entry. thus, sars-cov-2 is thought to have originated from bat. however, whether sars-cov-2 emerged from bats directly or through an intermediate host remains elusive. here, we found that rhinolophus affinis bat ace2 (raace2) is an entry receptor for both sars ... | 2021 | 33495713 |
| coronavirus in continuous flux: from sars-cov to sars-cov-2. | the world is currently experiencing a global pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2), which causes severe respiratory disease similar to sars. previous studies have suggested that sars-cov-2 shares 79% and 96% sequence identity to sars-cov and to bat coronavirus ratg13, respectively at the whole-genome level. furthermore, a series of studies have shown that sars-cov-2 induces clusters of severe respiratory illnesses (i.e., pneumonia, a ... | 2020 | 32837848 |
| the covid-19 pandemic: a comprehensive review of taxonomy, genetics, epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and control. | a pneumonia outbreak with unknown etiology was reported in wuhan, hubei province, china, in december 2019, associated with the huanan seafood wholesale market. the causative agent of the outbreak was identified by the who as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (sars-cov-2), producing the disease named coronavirus disease-2019 (covid-19). the virus is closely related (96.3%) to bat coronavirus ratg13, based on phylogenetic analysis. human-to-human transmission has been confirmed e ... | 2020 | 32344679 |
| conservation analysis of sars-cov-2 spike suggests complicated viral adaptation history from bat to human. | the current coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome (sars)-cov-2, has become the most devastating public health emergency in the 21st century and one of the most influential plagues in history. studies on the origin of sars-cov-2 have generally agreed that the virus probably comes from bat, closely related to a bat cov named bcov-ratg13 taken from horseshoe bat (rhinolophus affinis), with malayan pangolin (manis javanica) being a plausible interm ... | 2020 | 33372198 |
| computational biophysical characterization of the sars-cov-2 spike protein binding with the ace2 receptor and implications for infectivity. | sars-cov-2 is a novel highly virulent pathogen which gains entry to human cells by binding with the cell surface receptor - angiotensin converting enzyme (ace2). we computationally contrasted the binding interactions between human ace2 and coronavirus spike protein receptor binding domain (rbd) of the 2002 epidemic-causing sars-cov-1, sars-cov-2, and bat coronavirus ratg13 using the rosetta energy function. we find that the rbd of the spike protein of sars-cov-2 is highly optimized to achieve ve ... | 2020 | 32983400 |
| protein structure and sequence reanalysis of 2019-ncov genome refutes snakes as its intermediate host and the unique similarity between its spike protein insertions and hiv-1. | as the infection of 2019-ncov coronavirus is quickly developing into a global pneumonia epidemic, the careful analysis of its transmission and cellular mechanisms is sorely needed. in this communication, we first analyzed two recent studies that concluded that snakes are the intermediate hosts of 2019-ncov and that the 2019-ncov spike protein insertions share a unique similarity to hiv-1. however, the reimplementation of the analyses, built on larger scale data sets using state-of-the-art bioinf ... | 2020 | 32200634 |
| genetic evolution analysis of 2019 novel coronavirus and coronavirus from other species. | the corona virus disease 2019 (covid-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2) is a public health emergency of international concern. however, so far, there are still controversies about the source of the virus and its intermediate host. here, we found the novel coronavirus was closely related to coronaviruses derived from five wild animals, including paguma larvata, paradoxurus hermaphroditus, civet, aselliscus stoliczkanus and rhinolophus sinicus, and was in th ... | 2020 | 32169673 |