According to news reports, researchers discovered coronaviruses in Laotian bats. These viruses are the closest relatives of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), which was reported by reporters.
Researchers from France's Pasteur Institute and the University of Laos collected 645 bats from limestone caves of northern Laos. They then tested them for SARS-CoV-2 viruses. Three viruses were identified, BANAL-52, BANAL-103, and BANAL-236. They infected horseshoe bats with the virus and shared more that 95 percent of their genome with SARS.
Nature News reported that BANAL-552 was 96.8 per cent identical to SARS CoV-2. This makes BANAL-52.2 more genetically identical to SARS-CoV-2 that any other virus.
Nature News reported that RaTG13 was the closest known relative of SARS-CoV-2. It was discovered in horseshoe bats and shared 96.1 percent with SARS-CoV-2.
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Furthermore, the three newly discovered viruses share a key component of their genome (the receptor binding domain (RBD), that is more similar than any other known viruses.
The virus's RBD allows it to attach to host cells. The RBD binds with SARS-CoV-2 to a receptor called ACE2 on human cells. This receptor is used by the virus as a gateway into the cells.
The new study has shown that BANAL-236, BANAL-52, BANAL-353 and BANAL-353 can bind to ACE2 to allow them to enter human cells. Researchers stated that other candidates, such as RaTG13, who were suggested to be the ancestors for SARS-CoV-2, which was found in bats have not been able do this.
They said that the three viruses could bind almost as strongly to ACE2 as the early SARS-CoV-2 strains found in Wuhan.
These findings were posted to Research Square's preprint server on Septembe 17 and add to evidence that SARS/CoV-2 was not a virus that escaped from a laboratory.
Researchers wrote that the results showed "that sequences very similar to those of early strains of SARS–CoV-2... exist within nature."
"The receptor binding domain of SARSCoV-2 was unusual because it had so few viruses to compare to it," Edward Holmes, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Sydney, said to Bloomberg.
Holmes stated that "now that we have started to sample more from nature we are beginning to find these closely related bits gene sequence."
According to the authors, their findings support the theory that SARS-CoV-2 was caused by a recombination between viral sequences found in horseshoe bats.
Nature News reports that although the viruses discovered are very similar to SARS-CoV-2 they lack the sequence known as the furin cleavage location. This sequence is found in SARS-CoV-2. It aids virus entry into cells. To better understand SARS-CoV-2's origins, further research is required to determine when and how the furin site was created.
Bloomberg reported that the findings are being reviewed for publication in Nature journals.
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Live Science originally published this article. You can read the original article here.
