Positive selection as a key player for SARS-CoV-2 pathogenicity: Insights into ORF1ab, S and E genes.

ABSTRACT: The human β-coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 epidemic started in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China. It causes Covid-19 disease which has become pandemic. Each of the five-known human β-coronaviruses has four major structural proteins (E, M, N and S) and 16 non-structural proteins encoded by ORF1a and ORF1b together (ORF1ab) that are involved in virus pathogenicity and infectivity. Here, we performed detailed positive selection analyses for those six genes among the four previously known human β-coronaviruses and within 38 SARS-CoV-2 genomes to assess signatures of adaptive evolution using maximum likelihood approaches. Our results suggest that three genes (E, S and ORF1ab genes) are under strong signatures of positive selection among human β-coronavirus, influencing codons that are located in funct

SUBMITTER: Emam M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8190378 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature