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Exceptional diversity and selection pressure on SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 host receptor in bats compared to other mammals

View ORCID ProfileHannah K. Frank, View ORCID ProfileDavid Enard, Scott D. Boyd
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.20.051656
Hannah K. Frank
1Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA
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  • For correspondence: hkfrank@stanford.edu
David Enard
2Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
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Scott D. Boyd
1Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA
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Abstract

Pandemics originating from pathogen transmission between animals and humans highlight the broader need to understand how natural hosts have evolved in response to emerging human pathogens and which groups may be susceptible to infection. Here, we investigate angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), the host protein bound by SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. We find that the ACE2 gene is under strong selection pressure in bats, the group in which the progenitors of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 are hypothesized to have evolved, particularly in residues that contact SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. We detect positive selection in non-bat mammals in ACE2 but in a smaller proportion of branches than in bats, without enrichment of selection in residues that contact SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, we evaluate similarity between humans and other species in residues that contact SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-2, revealing potential susceptible species but also highlighting the difficulties of predicting spillover events. This work increases our understanding of the relationship between mammals, particularly bats, and coronaviruses, and provides data that can be used in functional studies of how host proteins are bound by SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 strains.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted April 20, 2020.
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Exceptional diversity and selection pressure on SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 host receptor in bats compared to other mammals
Hannah K. Frank, David Enard, Scott D. Boyd
bioRxiv 2020.04.20.051656; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.20.051656
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Exceptional diversity and selection pressure on SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 host receptor in bats compared to other mammals
Hannah K. Frank, David Enard, Scott D. Boyd
bioRxiv 2020.04.20.051656; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.20.051656

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