A genetic element in the SARS-CoV-2 genome is shared with multiple insect species
Open Access
- 10 January 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Microbiology Society in Journal of General Virology
- Vol. 102 (3), 001551
- https://doi.org/10.1099/jgv.0.001551
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 is a member of the subgenus Sarbecovirus and thus contains the genetic element s2m. We have extensively mined nucleotide data in GenBank in order to obtain a comprehensive list of s2m sequences both in the four virus families where s2m has previously been described and in other groups of organisms. Surprisingly, there seems to be a xenologue of s2m in a large number of insect species. The function of s2m is unknown, but our data show a very high degree of sequence conservation both in insects and in viruses and that the version of s2m found in SARS-CoV-2 has unique features, not seen in any other virus or insect strains.This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit:
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