Atlas of ACE2 gene expression in mammals reveals novel insights in transmisson of SARS-Cov-2
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Abstract
Background
COVID-19 has become a worldwide pandemic. It is caused by a novel coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2 with elusive origin. SARS-CoV-2 infects mammalian cells by binding to ACE2, a transmembrane protein. Therefore, the conservation of ACE2 and its expression pattern across mammalian species, which are yet to be comprehensively investigated, may provide valuable insights into tracing potential hosts of SARS-CoV-2.
Methods
We analyzed gene conservation of ACE2 across mammals and collected more than 140 transcriptome datasets from human and common mammalian species, including presumed hosts of SARS-CoV-2 and other animals in close contact with humans. In order to enable comparisons across species and tissues, we used a unified pipeline to quantify and normalize ACE2 expression levels.
Results
We first found high conservation of ACE2 genes among common mammals at both DNA and peptide levels, suggesting that a broad range of mammalian species can potentially be the hosts of SARS-CoV-2. Next, we showed that high level of ACE2 expression in certain human tissues is consistent with clinical symptoms of COVID-19 patients. Furthermore, we observed that ACE2 expressed in a species-specific manner in the mammals examined. Notably, high expression in skin and eyes in cat and dog suggested that these animals may play roles in transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to humans.
Conclusions
Through building the first atlas of ACE2 expression in pets and livestock, we identified species and tissues susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, yielding novel insights into the viral transmission.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.03.30.015644: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Latest versions of reference genomes and RefSeq gene annotations12 for these species were downloaded from NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information)13. RefSeqsuggested: (RefSeq, RRID:SCR_003496)Briefly, raw RNA-seq reads were first preprocessed to trim sequencing adapters and low-quality cycles using Ktrim software27 with default parameters; the preprocessed reads were then aligned to corresponding reference genomes using STAR software28 with default parameters. STARsugge…SciScore for 10.1101/2020.03.30.015644: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Latest versions of reference genomes and RefSeq gene annotations12 for these species were downloaded from NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information)13. RefSeqsuggested: (RefSeq, RRID:SCR_003496)Briefly, raw RNA-seq reads were first preprocessed to trim sequencing adapters and low-quality cycles using Ktrim software27 with default parameters; the preprocessed reads were then aligned to corresponding reference genomes using STAR software28 with default parameters. STARsuggested: (STAR, RRID:SCR_015899)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- No conflict of interest statement was detected. If there are no conflicts, we encourage authors to explicit state so.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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