Predicting mammalian hosts for coronavirus

[Eldorado]

The generation and emergence of three novel respiratory coronaviruses from mammalian reservoirs into human populations in the last 20 years, including one which has achieved pandemic status, suggests that one of the most pressing current research questions is: in which reservoirs could the next novel coronaviruses be generated and emerge from in future?

Armed with this knowledge, we may be able to reduce the chance of emergence into human populations, such as by the strict monitoring and enforced separation of the identified hosts, in live animal markets, farms, and other close-quarters environments; or we may be able to develop potential mitigations in advance.

Full open access research article at Nature dot com: Link

[Raptor Witness]

Excellent thread, El Dorado.

If we’re honest with ourselves, then we require new education, to understand how this virus likely came to be.

Apparently Joe Rogan has once again stuck in his foot in something which he doesn’t know much about, and raised again, the alarm that this virus may have escaped from a Wuhan laboratory.

Although not completely impossible, this does not jive with current thinking that the virus likely mutated through a recombinant process, requiring an animal which was able to carry a spike protein, capable of infecting human beings. The most likely candidate is still the pangolin.

Although not a perfect match, with the virus body, the pangolin spike protein itself, is a 99% match. Keeping in mind that our current vaccines are largely based upon the spike protein.

Apparently what can happen, is two viruses, which infect a single animal can combine and share genetic material resulting in a new hybrid virus. This process is called recombination. 

If readers here want to study this more and gain some self-education, I recommend searching for “pangolin spike protein.”

The Wuhan laboratory was more interested in bat coronaviruses, which typically have different spikes, that are incapable of infecting human beings.

The current thinking is that there may be no animal species reservoir, for the original SARS Cov-2 virus, because it’s a new recombination. 

Studying this theory, the other logical thought that comes to my mind, is what if a human being was the recombinant vessel, for the pangolin version of the virus?

Another article of great interest that I found was this:

Horizontal gene transfer and recombination analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genes helps discover its close relatives and shed light on its origin - NIH 2021