#Recombination across distant #coronavirid #species and #genera is a rare #event with distinct #genomic features
Source: Journal of Virology, https://journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/jvi.01100-24?af=R
ABSTRACT
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; family Coronaviridae, genus Betacoronavirus, subgenus Sarbecovirus) has caused millions of deaths, prompting a need for better understanding of coronavirid emergence and spillover to humans. As an evaluation of how some features of SARS-CoV-2, unique among sarbecoviruses, may have been acquired from related viruses, we conducted phylogenetic and recombination analyses to compare the frequency of recombination among coronavirids across vs within genera, subgenera, and species. Among known betacoronaviruses, we identified 199 (183 intraspecies, 16 interspecies, but no intersubgenera) recombination events. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that the ancestry of interspecies events was limited and less prone to affect 5′ regions of coronavirid genome open reading frame 1 (ORF1) than intraspecies events. On the contrary, interspecies events were significantly more prone to impact the 3′ end (ORF6–ORF8 and the nucleocapsid protein [N] ORF), suggesting the existence of region-specific constraints on recombination. This work substantiated that recombination among betacoronaviruses is limited by the genome similarity between their parental viruses. We conclude that SARS-CoV-2 likely acquired unique features through recombination with closely related circulating sarbecoviruses (most likely from the same species) that co-existed geographically.
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#abstract #betacoronavirus #biology #coronavirus #evolution #genetics #health #research #sarbecovirus #sarsCov2 #science
Giuseppe Michieli
Eric Ireland
ETIDIoH
