Complete genome characterisation of a novel coronavirus associated with severe human respiratory disease in Wuhan, China

Fan Wu; Su Zhao; Bin Yu; Yan-Mei Chen; Wen Wang; Yi Hu; Zhi-Gang Song; Zhao-Wu Tao; Jun-Hua Tian; Yuan-Yuan Pei; Ming-Li Yuan; Yu-Ling Zhang; Fa-Hui Dai; Yi Liu; Qi-Min Wang; Jiao-Jiao Zheng; Lin Xu; Edward C. Holmes; Yong-Zhen Zhang

To better understand the potential of WHCV to infect humans, the receptor-binding 139 domain (RBD) of its spike protein was compared to those in SARS-CoVs and bat SARS-like 140 CoVs. The RBD sequences of WHCV were more closely related to those of SARS-CoVs 141 (73.8%-74.9% aa identity) and SARS-like CoVs including strains Rs4874, Rs7327 and 142 Rs4231 (75.9%-76.9% aa identity) that are able to use the human ACE2 receptor for cell entry 143 (Table S7) 10 . In addition, the WHCV RBD was only one amino acid longer than the SARS- The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.24.919183 doi: bioRxiv preprint 8 (HKU1 and OC43) ( Figure S6 ) that can bind to sialic acid 13 . In sum, the high similarities of 157 amino acid sequences and predicted protein structure between WHCV and SARS-CoV RBD 158 domains suggest that WHCV may efficiently use human ACE2 as a cellular entry receptor, 159 perhaps facilitating human-to-human transmission 10, 14-15 . The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.24.919183 doi: bioRxiv preprint since 2005 in China 9,23-25 , the exact origin of human-infected coronaviruses remains unclear.