New study finds that novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 may be the result of recombination of pangolin coronavirus and bat coronavirus.
Researchers from South China Agricultural University and Guangzhou Zoo co-authored a research paper published in Nature as correspondent authors.
On May 7, researchers from South China Agricultural University and Guangzhou Zoo published a research paper entitled "Isolation of SARS-CoV-2-related coronavirus from Malayan pangolins" in Nature as correspondent authors. The results suggest that the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 may be the result of the recombination of a pangoline-CoV-like virus with a bat-CoV-RaTG13-like virus.
The newly discovered coronavirus in this trafficked mammal could pose a public health threat if the wildlife trade is not effectively controlled, the researchers said in the paper.
The paper claims that the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has high sequence homology with SARS-CoV and the bat coronavirus RaTG13. While bats may be hosts to various coronavirus, it remains unclear whether SARS-CoV-2 has other hosts.
In this study, a strain of coronavirus was isolated from Malaysian periwinkle beetle with 100%, 98.6%, 97.8% and 90.7% amino acid homology of the E, M, N and S genes to SARS-CoV-2, respectively.
In particular, the receptor-binding domain within the coronavirus S protein of pangolin is nearly identical to that of SARS-CoV-2, with only one non-critical amino acid difference.
The study showed that coronavirus was detected in 17 of the 25 Malaysian pangolin analysed. Infected pangolin showed clinical signs and histological changes, and circulating antibodies against pangolin coronavirus reacted with the S protein of SARS-CoV-2. The isolation of a coronavirus highly associated with SARS-CoV-2 from pangolin suggests that they may act as intermediate hosts for SARS-CoV-2.
The origin of novel coronavirus has been the focus of research by researchers, but conspiracy theories about the origin of novel coronavirus - that novel coronavirus are artificially manipulated or synthesized - are rampant.
On 21 April, a WHO spokesperson refuted the conspiracy theory of the origin of the novel coronavirus, and on 23 April WHO re-emphasized, through its daily outbreak report, that all known evidence suggests that the novel coronavirus originated from natural animals and was not manipulated or synthesized by a laboratory.
The WHO reports that the whole genome sequence of the novel coronavirus was published and shared on January 11-12 after human cases of the novel coronavirus were reported in Wuhan in December 2019.
Subsequently, viral whole-genome sequences from early infection cases and viral whole-genome sequences obtained elsewhere in the world suggest that the evolution of novel coronavirus can be traced to bat populations.
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