Unraveling the molecular basis of host cell receptor usage in SARS-CoV-2 and other human pathogenic β-CoVs.

ABSTRACT: The recent emergence of the novel SARS-CoV-2 in China and its rapid spread in the human population has led to a public health crisis worldwide. Like in SARS-CoV, horseshoe bats currently represent the most likely candidate animal source for SARS-CoV-2. Yet, the specific mechanisms of cross-species transmission and adaptation to the human host remain unknown. Here we show that the unsupervised analysis of conservation patterns across the β-CoV spike protein family, using sequence information alone, can provide valuable insights on the molecular basis of the specificity of β-CoVs to different host cell receptors. More precisely, our results indicate that host cell receptor usage is encoded in the amino acid sequences of different CoV spike proteins in the form of a set of specificity determi

SUBMITTER: Pontes C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7802526 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature