Version 1
: Received: 2 October 2021 / Approved: 5 October 2021 / Online: 5 October 2021 (11:26:34 CEST)
Version 2
: Received: 12 October 2021 / Approved: 14 October 2021 / Online: 14 October 2021 (13:08:25 CEST)
How to cite:
Romeu, A.R. SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV Share the Furin Site CGG-CGG Genetic Footprint. Preprints2021, 2021100080. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202110.0080.v2
Romeu, A.R. SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV Share the Furin Site CGG-CGG Genetic Footprint. Preprints 2021, 2021100080. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202110.0080.v2
Romeu, A.R. SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV Share the Furin Site CGG-CGG Genetic Footprint. Preprints2021, 2021100080. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202110.0080.v2
APA Style
Romeu, A.R. (2021). SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV Share the Furin Site CGG-CGG Genetic Footprint. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202110.0080.v2
Chicago/Turabian Style
Romeu, A.R. 2021 "SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV Share the Furin Site CGG-CGG Genetic Footprint" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202110.0080.v2
Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2 polybasic furin cleavage site isstill a missing link. Remarkably, the two arginine residuesof thisprotease recognition site are encoded by the CGG codon, which is rare in Betacoronavirus. However, the arginine pairis common at viral furin cleavage sites, but are not CGG-CGG encoded. The question is: Is this genetic footprint unique to the SARS-CoV-2? To address the issue, using Perl scripts, here I dissect in detail the NCBI Virus database in order to report the arginine dimersof theBetacoronavirus proteins. The main result reveals that a group of Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV) (isolates: camel/Nigeria/NVx/2016, host: Camelus dromedarius)also havetheCGG-CGG arginine pair in the spike proteinpolybasic furin cleavage region. In addition, CGG-CGG encoded arginine pairs werefound inthe orf1ab polyprotein from HKU9and HKU14 Betacoronavirus, as well as, in thenucleocapsid phosphoprotein fromfew SARS-CoV-2 isolates. To quantify the probability of finding the arginine CGG-CGG codon pair in Betacoronavirus, the likelihood ratio (LR) and a Markov model weredefined. In conclusion, it is highly unlikely to find this genetic marker in betacoronaviruses wildlife, but they are there. Collectively, results shed light on recombination as origin of thevirusCGG-CGG arginine pairinthe S1/S2 cleavage site.
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.
Received:
14 October 2021
Commenter:
Antonio Ramón Romeu
Commenter's Conflict of Interests:
Author
Comment:
Details of changes: For clarity, paragraphs are separated with subheadings. The MERS-CoV CGG-CGG arginine dimer is explained in more detail. A Figure is included (Figure 1). The probability analysis also includes the likelihood ratio (LR). New references have been introduced (8, 13, 14, 18, 20). Summary has been updated, No significant changes.
Commenter: Antonio Ramón Romeu
Commenter's Conflict of Interests: Author
For clarity, paragraphs are separated with subheadings.
The MERS-CoV CGG-CGG arginine dimer is explained in more detail. A Figure is included (Figure 1).
The probability analysis also includes the likelihood ratio (LR).
New references have been introduced (8, 13, 14, 18, 20).
Summary has been updated, No significant changes.