tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Genes (Basel)
. 2020 Jun 9;11(6):E637.
doi: 10.3390/genes11060637.
Analysis of the Hosts and Transmission Paths of SARS-CoV-2 in the COVID-19 Outbreak
Rui Dong[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Shaojun Pei[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Changchuan Yin[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Rong Lucy He[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Stephen S-T Yau[SUP] 1 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
The severe respiratory disease COVID-19 was initially reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, and spread into many provinces from Wuhan. The corresponding pathogen was soon identified as a novel coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2 (formerly, 2019-nCoV). As of 2 May, 2020, over 3 million COVID-19 cases had been confirmed, and 235,290 deaths had been reported globally, and the numbers are still increasing. It is important to understand the phylogenetic relationship between SARS-CoV-2 and known coronaviruses, and to identify its hosts for preventing the next round of emergency outbreak. In this study, we employ an effective alignment-free approach, the Natural Vector method, to analyze the phylogeny and classify the coronaviruses based on genomic and protein data. Our results show that SARS-CoV-2 is closely related to, but distinct from the SARS-CoV branch. By analyzing the genetic distances from the SARS-CoV-2 strain to the coronaviruses residing in animal hosts, we establish that the most possible transmission path originates from bats to pangolins to humans.
Keywords: COVID-19; Natural Vector method; SARS-CoV-2; transmission path.
. 2020 Jun 9;11(6):E637.
doi: 10.3390/genes11060637.
Analysis of the Hosts and Transmission Paths of SARS-CoV-2 in the COVID-19 Outbreak
Rui Dong[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Shaojun Pei[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Changchuan Yin[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Rong Lucy He[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Stephen S-T Yau[SUP] 1 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 32526937
- DOI: 10.3390/genes11060637
Abstract
The severe respiratory disease COVID-19 was initially reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, and spread into many provinces from Wuhan. The corresponding pathogen was soon identified as a novel coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2 (formerly, 2019-nCoV). As of 2 May, 2020, over 3 million COVID-19 cases had been confirmed, and 235,290 deaths had been reported globally, and the numbers are still increasing. It is important to understand the phylogenetic relationship between SARS-CoV-2 and known coronaviruses, and to identify its hosts for preventing the next round of emergency outbreak. In this study, we employ an effective alignment-free approach, the Natural Vector method, to analyze the phylogeny and classify the coronaviruses based on genomic and protein data. Our results show that SARS-CoV-2 is closely related to, but distinct from the SARS-CoV branch. By analyzing the genetic distances from the SARS-CoV-2 strain to the coronaviruses residing in animal hosts, we establish that the most possible transmission path originates from bats to pangolins to humans.
Keywords: COVID-19; Natural Vector method; SARS-CoV-2; transmission path.