Researchers find coronavirus hiding in Lao bats that appear to be its closest relatives. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Corona Virus Infectious Disease-19: Corona 19 According to news reports so far.
In a new study, researchers from the French Institute of Pasteur and the University of Laos captured 645 bats from limestone caves in northern Laos to test the virus SARS-CoV-2. They found three viruses (BANAL-52, BANAL-103 and BANAL-236) that infect horseshoe bats and share more than 95% of their entire genome with SARS-CoV-2.
One virus, BANAL-52, was 96.8% identical to SARS-CoV-2. Property News. This makes BAAL-52 more genetically similar to SARS-CoV-2 than any other known virus.
Previously, SARS-CoV-2’s closest relative was RaTG13, which was discovered in horseshoe bats in 2013 and shares 96.1% of its genome with SARS-CoV-2, Nature News reported.
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Moreover, all three newly discovered viruses are more similar to SARS-CoV-2 in a key part of their genome called the receptor binding domain (RBD). virus.
RBD is the part of the virus that allows it to bind to the host cell. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, RBD binds to a receptor known as ACE2 on human cells, and the virus uses this receptor as a cell gateway.
Crucially, a new study found that BANAL-52, BANAL-103 and BANAL-236 can bind to and use ACE2 to enter human cells. Other candidates have suggested that the ancestors of SARS-CoV-2 found in bats so far, including RaTG13, were unable to do so.
They said the three viruses could bind to ACE2 as well as an early strain of SARS-CoV-2 found in Wuhan.
Results are published on the prepress server. Search field added to guide on September 17 SARS-CoV-2 instead of escaping from a lab of natural origin.
The results “are very similar to the sequences found in early strains of SARS-CoV-2 and are present in nature,” the researchers write in an unpublished peer-reviewed paper.
“When the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain was first discovered, it looked anomalous,” said Edward Holmes, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Sydney, who was not involved in the study. Because there were very few viruses that could be compared.” Bloomberg.
“Now that we’ve taken more samples from nature, we’re starting to look for closely related parts of the gene sequence,” Holmes said.
The authors say their findings support the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 originated from recombination of a viral sequence present in horseshoe bats.
However, although the newly discovered virus is closely related to SARS-CoV-2, all three viruses lack a sequence known as the “furan cleavage site” found in SARS-CoV-2. Virus invasion into accessory cells nature news. This means that more studies are needed to show how and when purines were introduced to better understand the origin of SARS-CoV-2.
Results are currently under review for publication Property Reported by the magazine Bloomberg.
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This article was originally published in Live Science. Read the original article here.
