Hassan, Sk.S.; Kodakandla, V.; Redwan, E.M.; Lundstrom, K.; Choudhury, P.P.; Serrano-Aroca, Á.; Azad, G.K.; Aljabali, A.A.A.; Palu, G.; Abd El-Aziz, T.M.; et al. Non-Uniform Aspects of the SARS-CoV-2 Intraspecies Evolution Reopen Question of Its Origin. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules 2022, 222, 972–993, doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2022.09.184.
Hassan, Sk.S.; Kodakandla, V.; Redwan, E.M.; Lundstrom, K.; Choudhury, P.P.; Serrano-Aroca, Á.; Azad, G.K.; Aljabali, A.A.A.; Palu, G.; Abd El-Aziz, T.M.; et al. Non-Uniform Aspects of the SARS-CoV-2 Intraspecies Evolution Reopen Question of Its Origin. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules 2022, 222, 972–993, doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2022.09.184.
Hassan, Sk.S.; Kodakandla, V.; Redwan, E.M.; Lundstrom, K.; Choudhury, P.P.; Serrano-Aroca, Á.; Azad, G.K.; Aljabali, A.A.A.; Palu, G.; Abd El-Aziz, T.M.; et al. Non-Uniform Aspects of the SARS-CoV-2 Intraspecies Evolution Reopen Question of Its Origin. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules 2022, 222, 972–993, doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2022.09.184.
Hassan, Sk.S.; Kodakandla, V.; Redwan, E.M.; Lundstrom, K.; Choudhury, P.P.; Serrano-Aroca, Á.; Azad, G.K.; Aljabali, A.A.A.; Palu, G.; Abd El-Aziz, T.M.; et al. Non-Uniform Aspects of the SARS-CoV-2 Intraspecies Evolution Reopen Question of Its Origin. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules 2022, 222, 972–993, doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2022.09.184.
Abstract
Several hypotheses have been presented on the origin of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from its identification as the agent causing the current coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic. So far, no hypothesis has managed to identify the origin, and the issue has resurfaced. Here we have unfolded a pattern of distribution of several mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 proteins across different continents comprising 24 geo-locations. The results showed an evenly uneven distribution of unique protein variants, distinct mutations, unique frequency of common conserved residues, and mutational residues across the 24 geo-locations. Furthermore, ample mutations were identified in the evolutionarily conserved invariant regions in the SARS-CoV-2 proteins across almost all geo-locations we have considered. This pattern of mutations potentially breaches the law of evolutionary conserved functional units of the beta-coronavirus genus. These mutations may lead to several novel SARS-CoV-2 variants with a high degree of transmissibility and virulence. A thorough investigation on the origin and characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 needs to be conducted in the interest of science and to be prepared to meet the challenges of potential future pandemics.
Keywords
SARS-CoV-2; Mutations; Furin Cleavage Site (FCS); Evenly-uneven; Invariant regions
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.