SARS-CoV-2-like viruses from captive Guangdong pangolins generate circular RNAs

Les virus proches du SARS-CoV-2 isolés chez des pangolins captifs de Guangdong produisent des ARN circulaires

Alexandre Hassanin (1) , Huw Jones (2) , Anne Ropiquet (2)

1 ISYEB - Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité
2 Middlesex University [London]

Viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic, have previously been identified in several Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica) seized in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces of China [1-4]. The virus extracted from Guangdong pangolins is particularly intriguing as the amino-acid sequence of the receptor binding domain of the spike protein is nearly identical to that of the human SARS-CoV-2 virus [2,3]. This characteristic suggests it is capable of binding to the human ACE2 receptor and may therefore be able to mediate infection of human cells. Here, we assembled SARS-CoV-2-like genomes from the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) data available in May 2020 for ten Guangdong pangolins. As previously described [5] the genome assemblies were of poor quality, having high levels of missing data and with possible DNA contamination from human, mouse and tiger. We found 10 circular RNAs (circRNAs) of 278-776 nucleotides (nt) containing SARS-CoV-2-like sequences in three pangolin lung samples. This is the first time this class of molecule is reported to be generated from an RNA-genome virus.

Mots clés: Covid-19; SARS-CoV-2; circular RNA; RNA-genome virus; pangolin; host; viral infection

Domaines: Virologie

Alexandre Hassanin, Huw Jones, Anne Ropiquet. SARS-CoV-2-like viruses from captive Guangdong pangolins generate circular RNAs. 2020. ⟨hal-02616966⟩