A-to-I RNA editing in SARS-COV-2: real or artifact?

Picardi, Ernesto; Mansi, Luigi; Pesole, Graziano

ADAR1-mediated deamination of adenosines in long double stranded RNAs plays an important role in modulating the innate immune response. However, recent investigations based on metatranscriptomic samples of COVID-19 patients and SARS-COV-2 infected Vero cells have recovered contrasting findings. Using RNAseq data from time course experiments of infected human cell lines and transcriptome data from Vero cells and clinical samples, we prove that A-to-G changes observed in SARS-COV-2 genomes represent genuine RNA editing events, likely mediated by ADAR1. While the A-to-I editing rate is generally low, changes are distributed along the entire viral genome, are overrepresented in exonic regions and are, in the majority of cases, nonsynonymous. The impact of RNA editing on virus-host interactions could be relevant to identify potential targets for therapeutic interventions.