Translational adaptation of human viruses to the tissues they infect

Xavier Hernandez-Alias; Martin Schaefer; Luis Serrano

We initially reconstructed tRNA expression profiles along the respiratory tract making use of the spatial information associated with healthy TCGA samples from head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC), lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) (Sup. Table 4 ). We then computed the SDA of viral proteins from the three pandemic coronaviruses of the last two decades SARS-CoV 31 , MERS-CoV 32 , and SARS-CoV-2 33 , as well as the common flu-causing influenza A virus (H1N1) along the respiratory tract. We find that the new coronavirus strain SARS-CoV-2 is the most translationally adapted virus across all tissues, especially in comparison with MERS-CoV and influenza A virus (Fig. 3A) . Further, the novel coronavirus is highly adapted throughout the whole respiratory tract, and specifically the upper respiratory airways and the alveolar region in the lung periphery are the most efficient tissues.