Identifying zoonotic origin of SARS-CoV-2 by modeling the binding affinity between Spike receptor-binding domain and host ACE2
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Abstract
Despite considerable research progress on SARS-CoV-2, the direct zoonotic origin (intermediate host) of the virus remains ambiguous. The most definitive approach to identify the intermediate host would be the detection of SARS-CoV-2-like coronaviruses in wild animals. However, due to the high number of animal species, it is not feasible to screen all the species in the laboratory. Given that the recognition of the binding ACE2 proteins is the first step for the coronaviruses to invade host cells, we proposed a computational pipeline to identify potential intermediate hosts of SARS-CoV-2 by modeling the binding affinity between the Spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) and host ACE2. Using this pipeline, we systematically examined 285 ACE2 variants from mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians, and found that the binding energies calculated on the modeled Spike-RBD/ACE2 complex structures correlate closely with the effectiveness of animal infections as determined by multiple experimental datasets. Built on the optimized binding affinity cutoff, we suggested a set of 96 mammals, including 48 experimentally investigated ones, which are permissive to SARS-CoV-2, with candidates from primates, rodents, and carnivores at the highest risk of infection. Overall, this work not only suggested a limited range of potential intermediate SARS-CoV-2 hosts for further experimental investigation; but more importantly, it proposed a new structure-based approach to general zoonotic origin and susceptibility analyses that are critical for human infectious disease control and wildlife protection.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.11.293449: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Sequence analyses: 291 ACE2 sequences, including the six ACE2 proteins with missing S-RBD binding residues in Supporting Information Table S2, were subjected to multiple sequence alignment (MSA) analysis using Clustal Omega [53] with default parameters. Clustal Omegasuggested: (Clustal Omega, RRID:SCR_001591)We utilized Modeller v9.24 [30] to build the initial putative complex models. Modellersuggested: (MODELLER, RRID:SCR_008395)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).
Re…SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.11.293449: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Sequence analyses: 291 ACE2 sequences, including the six ACE2 proteins with missing S-RBD binding residues in Supporting Information Table S2, were subjected to multiple sequence alignment (MSA) analysis using Clustal Omega [53] with default parameters. Clustal Omegasuggested: (Clustal Omega, RRID:SCR_001591)We utilized Modeller v9.24 [30] to build the initial putative complex models. Modellersuggested: (MODELLER, RRID:SCR_008395)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:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- 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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