Comparative ACE2 variation and primate COVID-19 risk.

ABSTRACT: The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has caused over a million human deaths and massive global disruption. The viral infection may also represent a threat to our closest living relatives, nonhuman primates. The contact surface of the host cell receptor, ACE2, displays amino acid residues that are critical for virus recognition, and variations at these critical residues modulate infection susceptibility. Infection studies have shown that some primate species develop COVID-19-like symptoms; however, the susceptibility of most primates is unknown. Here, we show that all apes and African and Asian monkeys (catarrhines), exhibit the same set of twelve key amino acid residues as human ACE2. Monkeys in the Americas, and some tarsiers, lemurs and lorisoids, differ at critical contact residues, and protein

SUBMITTER: Melin AD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7591510 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature