		<div class="wpcnt">
			<div class="wpa">
				<span class="wpa-about">Advertisements</span>
				<div class="u top_amp">
							<amp-ad width="300" height="265"
		 type="pubmine"
		 data-siteid="111265417"
		 data-section="2">
		</amp-ad>
				</div>
			</div>
		</div><p>The evolutionary history of the virus responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic has been circulating in bats for decades, according to an international team of researchers.</p>
<p>The scientists have traced back the origins of SARS-CoV-2, with their findings having implications for preventing future pandemics from the same lineage.</p>
<p><!--Ads1--></p>
<p>The team used three different approaches to identify and remove regions in the genome before reconstructing histories and comparing them to see which specific viruses have appeared in the past.</p>
<p>They found the lineage of viruses that SARS-CoV-2 belongs to diverged from other bat viruses from about 40 to 70 years ago.</p>
<blockquote><p>We should have been better prepared for a second SARS virus</p></blockquote>
<p>David L Robertson, professor of computational virology at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, said the findings suggest “other viruses that are capable of infecting humans are circulating in horseshoe bats in China”.</p>
<p>He said: “SARS-CoV-2’s receptor-binding domain sequence has so far only been found in a few pangolin viruses.</p>
<p>“Furthermore, the other key feature thought to be instrumental to SARS-CoV-2’s ability to infect humans – a polybasic cleavage site insertion in the Spike protein – has not yet been seen in another close bat relative of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.</p>
<p>“While it is possible that pangolins may have acted as an intermediate host facilitating transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to humans, no evidence exists to suggest that pangolin infection is a requirement for bat viruses to cross into humans.”</p>
<p>He explained: “Instead, our research suggests that SARS-CoV-2 likely evolved the ability to replicate in the upper respiratory tract of both humans and pangolins.</p>
<p>“The key to successful surveillance is knowing which viruses to look for and prioritising those that can readily infect humans.</p>
<p>“We should have been better prepared for a second SARS virus.”</p>
<p>Although SARS-CoV-2 is 96% similar to the RaTG13 coronavirus – sampled from a Rhinolophus affinis horseshoe bat in 2013 in Yunnan, China – the team found it only diverged from that strand in 1969.</p>
<p>The findings appear in Nature Microbiology with authors from institutes including Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China; the University of Hong Kong, the University of Texas at Arlington, and the University of Edinburgh.</p>
<p>It also comes the day after the UK’s first confirmed case of coronavirus in a pet cat – although evidence suggests it is not possible for felines to pass the virus on to humans.</p>
<p>The team suggests preventing future pandemics will require better sampling within wild bats as well as human disease surveillance system.</p>
<p><!--Ads2--></p>
<p>Maciej Boni, associate professor of biology at Penn State, warned the Covid-19 pandemic “will not be our last”.<br />
He said: “Coronaviruses have genetic material that is highly recombinant, meaning different regions of the virus’s genome can be derived from multiple sources.</p>
<p>“This has made it difficult to reconstruct SARS-CoV-2’s origins – you have to identify all the regions that have been recombining and trace their histories.</p>
<p>“We put together a diverse team with expertise in recombination, phylogenetic dating, virus sampling, and molecular and viral evolution.”</p>
<p>He added: “We were too late in responding to the initial SARS-CoV-2 outbreak but this will not be our last coronavirus pandemic.</p>
<p>“A much more comprehensive and real-time surveillance system needs to be put in place to catch viruses like this when case numbers are still in the double digits.”</p>
			<div style="padding-bottom:15px;" class="wordads-tag" data-slot-type="belowpost">
				<div id="atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68eccd748afd5">
					<script type="text/javascript">
						window.getAdSnippetCallback = function () {
							if ( false === ( window.isWatlV1 ?? false ) ) {
								// Use Aditude scripts.
								window.tudeMappings = window.tudeMappings || [];
								window.tudeMappings.push( {
									divId: 'atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68eccd748afd5',
									format: 'belowpost',
								} );
							}
						}

						if ( document.readyState === 'loading' ) {
							document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', window.getAdSnippetCallback );
						} else {
							window.getAdSnippetCallback();
						}
					</script>
				</div>
			</div>
Discover more from London Glossy Post
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
