Coding potential and sequence conservation of SARS-CoV-2 and related animal viruses

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.meegid.2020.104353Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We analyzed the coding region of SARS-CoV-2 and related bat/pangolin viruses.

  • We identified six regions of significantly low variability at sysnonymous sites.

  • One of these corresponds to a conserved RNA structure shared with the SARS-CoV lineage.

  • The dS reduction within ORF3a corresponds to a potential ORF encoding a viroporin.

  • In SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses, the putative 3′ terminal ORF10 has high dN/dS.

Abstract

In December 2019, a novel human-infecting coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was recognized in China. In a few months, SARS-CoV-2 has caused thousands of disease cases and deaths in several countries. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that SARS-CoV-2 clusters with SARS-CoV in the Sarbecovirus subgenus and viruses related to SARS-CoV-2 were identified from bats and pangolins. Coronaviruses have long and complex genomes with high plasticity in terms of gene content. To date, the coding potential of SARS-CoV-2 remains partially unknown. We thus used available sequences of bat and pangolin viruses to determine the selective events that shaped the genome structure of SARS-CoV-2 and to assess its coding potential. By searching for signals of significantly reduced variability at synonymous sites (dS), we identified six genomic regions, one of these corresponding to the programmed −1 ribosomal frameshift. The most prominent signal of dS reduction was observed within the E gene. A genome-wide analysis of conserved RNA structures indicated that this region harbors a putative functional RNA element that is shared with the SARS-CoV lineage. Additional signals of reduced dS indicated the presence of internal ORFs. Whereas the presence ORF9a (internal to N) was previously proposed by homology with a well characterized protein of SARS-CoV, ORF3h (for hypothetical, within ORF3a) was not previously described. The predicted product of ORF3h has 90% identity with the corresponding predicted product of SARS-CoV and displays features suggestive of a viroporin. Finally, analysis of the putative ORF10 revealed high dN/dS (3.82) in SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses. In the SARS-CoV lineage, the ORF is predicted to encode a truncated protein and is neutrally evolving. These data suggest that ORF10 encodes a functional protein in SARS-CoV-2 and that positive selection is driving its evolution. Experimental analyses will be necessary to validate and characterize the coding and non-coding functional elements we identified.

Keywords

SARS-CoV-2
Coronaviruses
Functional RNA elements
Coding potential

Abbreviations

ORF
open reading frame
-1 PRF
programmed -1 ribosomal frameshifting
dS
synonymous substitution rate
dN
nonsynonymous substitution rate
GTR
General Time Reversible
SLAC
single-likelihood ancestor counting
PAML
Phylogenetic Analysis by Maximum Likelihood

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1

These authors equally contributed to this work

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