COVID-19: Scientists discover novel SARS-CoV-2 genomes in Chinese bats

Scientists have discovered at least four new types of coronaviruses in bats in China. In an investigation led by the virologist, Edward Holmes from the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia, an analysis of over 400 samples from the bats in China’s Yunnan province found that there were at least four more variants that are related to strains that lead to COVID-19 in humans. In January 2020, Holmes was the person who informed that a new coronavirus is behind the mysterious pneumonia detected in Wuhan. 

Species of wild animals have a great number of viruses and it's possible for one to emerge and cause an epidemic or a pandemic in humans, Holmes said in a press conference as cited by Spanish daily MARCA. He further explained that this wasn’t something that happened only once in 100 years as a hard and fast rule, but the threats of the spread causing a pandemic such as the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 loomed large. Of the total four viruses discovered, at least one strain bore 94.5 percent similarity to the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome causing SARS-CoV-2. Scientists then conducted further analysis of the samples via genome sequencing to study the frequency of occurrence of CoV-2-related coronaviruses in wildlife species.

From these data we obtained 24 full-length coronavirus genomes, including four novel SARS-CoV-2 related and three SARS-CoV related genomes. Of these viruses, RpYN06 exhibited 94.5% sequence identity to SARS-CoV-2 across the whole genome and was the closest relative of SARS-CoV-2 in the ORF1ab, ORF7a, ORF8, N, and ORF10 genes, the study read. 

Strain similar to one found in pangolin

Having conducted a meta-transcriptomic study of 411 samples collected from 23 bat species in a small region in Yunnan province, scientists found that nearly 40 of the total 100 sequencing consisted of coronavirus genomes, with at least seven that represented SARS-CoV-2-like structure. "From these data we obtained 24 full-length coronavirus genomes, including four novel SARS-CoV-2 related and three SARS-CoV related genomes," researchers said in the study. Among the four genes ORF1ab, ORF7a, ORF8, N, and ORF10 that were identified as similar to the pandemic causing virus, a RpYN06 strain "clustered quite closely", scientists revealed. 

"The other three SARS-CoV-2 related coronaviruses were nearly identical in sequence," they explained. The four coronaviruses also struck similarity with the strain which was discovered in pangolins from Guangxi, China when the pandmeic hit Wuhan, China. The research project was led by a team of international scientists under the guidance of Professor Shi Weifong of Shandong First Medical University. The findings were published on biology server bioRxiv.org.