<p>Scientists have identified a close relative of SARS-CoV-2 in bats which offers more evidence that the virus behind the COVID-19 disease evolved naturally, and not in a laboratory.</p>.<p><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/coronavirus-india-live-updates-total-cases-deaths-covid-19-tracker-worldometer-update-lockdown-30-latest-news-835374.html"><b>Track live updates on coronavirus here</b></a></p>.<p>There is ongoing debate among policymakers and the general public about where SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 disease came from, according to the researchers from Shandong First Medical University in China.</p>.<p>While researchers consider bats the most likely natural hosts for the virus, the origins of the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/coronavirus-live-news-covid-19-latest-updates"><b>coronavirus</b></a> are still unclear, they said.</p>.<p><b>Also Read: </b><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/coronavirus-india-update-state-wise-total-number-of-confirmed-cases-deaths-on-may-12-836557.html"><b>Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases</b></a></p>.<p>The study, published in the journal Current Biology, describes a recently identified bat coronavirus that is SARS-CoV-2's closest relative in some regions of the genome.</p>.<p>The virus also contains insertions of amino acids at the junction of the S1 and S2 subunits of the virus's spike protein in a manner similar to SAR-CoV-2, according to the researchers.</p>.<p>While it's not a direct evolutionary precursor of SARS-CoV-2, this new virus, RmYN02, suggests that these types of seemingly unusual insertion events can occur naturally in coronavirus evolution, they said.</p>.<p><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/coronavirus-updates-cases-deaths-country-wise-worldometers-info-data-covid-19-834531.html#1"><b>COVID-19 Pandemic Tracker: 15 countries with the highest number of coronavirus cases, deaths</b></a></p>.<p>"Since the discovery of SARS-CoV-2 there have been a number of unfounded suggestions that the virus has a laboratory origin," said senior study author Weifeng Shi, a professor at the Shandong First Medical University.</p>.<p>"In particular, it has been proposed the S1/S2 insertion is highly unusual and perhaps indicative of laboratory manipulation. Our paper shows very clearly that these events occur naturally in wildlife. This provides strong evidence against SARS-CoV-2 being a laboratory escape," Shi said.</p>.<p>The researchers identified RmYN02 from an analysis of 227 bat samples collected in Yunnan province, China, between May and October of 2019.</p>.<p>"Since the discovery that bats were the reservoir of SARS coronavirus in 2005, there has been great interest in bats as reservoir species for infectious diseases, particularly as they carry a very high diversity of RNA viruses, including coronaviruses," Shi said.</p>.<p>RNA from the samples was sent for metagenomic next-generation sequencing in early January 2020, soon after the discovery of SARS-CoV-2.</p>.<p>The researchers noted that across the whole genome, the closest relative to SARS-CoV-2 is another virus, called RaTG13, which was previously identified from bats in Yunnan province.</p>.<p>However, they said that RmYN02 is even more closely related to SARS-CoV-2 in some parts of the genome, including in the longest encoding section of the genome called 1ab, where they share 97.2 per cent of their RNA.</p>.<p>The researchers note that RmYN02 does not closely resemble SARS-CoV-2 in the region of the genome that encodes the key receptor domain that binds to the human ACE2 receptor that the novel coronavirus uses to infect host cells.</p>.<p>This means it's not likely to infect human cells, they said.</p>.<p>The key similarity between SARS-CoV-2 and RmYN02, is the finding that RmYN02 also contains amino acid insertions at the point where the two subunits of its spike protein meet, according to the researchers.</p>.<p>SARS-CoV-2 is characterised by a four-amino-acid insertion at the junction of S1 and S2, which is unique to the virus, and has been present in all SARS-CoV-2 sequenced so far, they said.</p>.<p>The insertions in RmYN02 are not the same as those in SARS-CoV-2, which indicates that they occurred through independent insertion events, the researchers explained.</p>.<p>However, a similar insertion event happening in a virus identified in bats strongly suggests that these kinds of insertions are of natural origin, they said.</p>.<p>"Our findings suggest that these insertion events that initially appeared to be very unusual can, in fact, occur naturally in animal betacoronaviruses," Shi said.</p>.<p>"Our work sheds more light on the evolutionary ancestry of SARS-CoV-2," he added.</p>.<p>Shi noted that neither RaTG13 nor RmYN02 is the direct ancestor of SARS-CoV-2, because there is still an evolutionary gap between these viruses.</p>.<p>However, he said the study strongly suggests that sampling of more wildlife species will reveal viruses that are even more closely related to SARS-CoV-2, and may be its direct ancestors, which will reveal a great deal about how this virus emerged in humans. </p>
<p>Scientists have identified a close relative of SARS-CoV-2 in bats which offers more evidence that the virus behind the COVID-19 disease evolved naturally, and not in a laboratory.</p>.<p><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/coronavirus-india-live-updates-total-cases-deaths-covid-19-tracker-worldometer-update-lockdown-30-latest-news-835374.html"><b>Track live updates on coronavirus here</b></a></p>.<p>There is ongoing debate among policymakers and the general public about where SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 disease came from, according to the researchers from Shandong First Medical University in China.</p>.<p>While researchers consider bats the most likely natural hosts for the virus, the origins of the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/coronavirus-live-news-covid-19-latest-updates"><b>coronavirus</b></a> are still unclear, they said.</p>.<p><b>Also Read: </b><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/coronavirus-india-update-state-wise-total-number-of-confirmed-cases-deaths-on-may-12-836557.html"><b>Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases</b></a></p>.<p>The study, published in the journal Current Biology, describes a recently identified bat coronavirus that is SARS-CoV-2's closest relative in some regions of the genome.</p>.<p>The virus also contains insertions of amino acids at the junction of the S1 and S2 subunits of the virus's spike protein in a manner similar to SAR-CoV-2, according to the researchers.</p>.<p>While it's not a direct evolutionary precursor of SARS-CoV-2, this new virus, RmYN02, suggests that these types of seemingly unusual insertion events can occur naturally in coronavirus evolution, they said.</p>.<p><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/coronavirus-updates-cases-deaths-country-wise-worldometers-info-data-covid-19-834531.html#1"><b>COVID-19 Pandemic Tracker: 15 countries with the highest number of coronavirus cases, deaths</b></a></p>.<p>"Since the discovery of SARS-CoV-2 there have been a number of unfounded suggestions that the virus has a laboratory origin," said senior study author Weifeng Shi, a professor at the Shandong First Medical University.</p>.<p>"In particular, it has been proposed the S1/S2 insertion is highly unusual and perhaps indicative of laboratory manipulation. Our paper shows very clearly that these events occur naturally in wildlife. This provides strong evidence against SARS-CoV-2 being a laboratory escape," Shi said.</p>.<p>The researchers identified RmYN02 from an analysis of 227 bat samples collected in Yunnan province, China, between May and October of 2019.</p>.<p>"Since the discovery that bats were the reservoir of SARS coronavirus in 2005, there has been great interest in bats as reservoir species for infectious diseases, particularly as they carry a very high diversity of RNA viruses, including coronaviruses," Shi said.</p>.<p>RNA from the samples was sent for metagenomic next-generation sequencing in early January 2020, soon after the discovery of SARS-CoV-2.</p>.<p>The researchers noted that across the whole genome, the closest relative to SARS-CoV-2 is another virus, called RaTG13, which was previously identified from bats in Yunnan province.</p>.<p>However, they said that RmYN02 is even more closely related to SARS-CoV-2 in some parts of the genome, including in the longest encoding section of the genome called 1ab, where they share 97.2 per cent of their RNA.</p>.<p>The researchers note that RmYN02 does not closely resemble SARS-CoV-2 in the region of the genome that encodes the key receptor domain that binds to the human ACE2 receptor that the novel coronavirus uses to infect host cells.</p>.<p>This means it's not likely to infect human cells, they said.</p>.<p>The key similarity between SARS-CoV-2 and RmYN02, is the finding that RmYN02 also contains amino acid insertions at the point where the two subunits of its spike protein meet, according to the researchers.</p>.<p>SARS-CoV-2 is characterised by a four-amino-acid insertion at the junction of S1 and S2, which is unique to the virus, and has been present in all SARS-CoV-2 sequenced so far, they said.</p>.<p>The insertions in RmYN02 are not the same as those in SARS-CoV-2, which indicates that they occurred through independent insertion events, the researchers explained.</p>.<p>However, a similar insertion event happening in a virus identified in bats strongly suggests that these kinds of insertions are of natural origin, they said.</p>.<p>"Our findings suggest that these insertion events that initially appeared to be very unusual can, in fact, occur naturally in animal betacoronaviruses," Shi said.</p>.<p>"Our work sheds more light on the evolutionary ancestry of SARS-CoV-2," he added.</p>.<p>Shi noted that neither RaTG13 nor RmYN02 is the direct ancestor of SARS-CoV-2, because there is still an evolutionary gap between these viruses.</p>.<p>However, he said the study strongly suggests that sampling of more wildlife species will reveal viruses that are even more closely related to SARS-CoV-2, and may be its direct ancestors, which will reveal a great deal about how this virus emerged in humans. </p>