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Emergence of SARS-CoV-2 through recombination and strong purifying selection

Journal Article · · Science Advances
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [2];  [5];  [6]
  1. Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
  2. Theoretical Biology and Biophysics, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87544, USA.
  3. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USA.
  4. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Grossman School of Medicine, New York University, New York, NY 10016, USA.
  5. Theoretical Biology and Biophysics, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87544, USA., New Mexico Consortium, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
  6. Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA., National Engineering Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine, School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China.
+ Show Author Affiliations

COVID-19 has become a global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Understanding the origins of SARS-CoV-2 is critical for deterring future zoonosis, discovering new drugs, and developing a vaccine. We show evidence of strong purifying selection around the receptor binding motif (RBM) in the spike and other genes among bat, pangolin, and human coronaviruses, suggesting similar evolutionary constraints in different host species. We also demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2’s entire RBM was introduced through recombination with coronaviruses from pangolins, possibly a critical step in the evolution of SARS-CoV-2’s ability to infect humans. Similar purifying selection in different host species, together with frequent recombination among coronaviruses, suggests a common evolutionary mechanism that could lead to new emerging human coronaviruses.

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
OSTI ID:
1635592
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1726193
Journal Information:
Science Advances, Journal Name: Science Advances Journal Issue: 27 Vol. 6; ISSN 2375-2548
Publisher:
AAASCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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