The authors of the study once again argue that the new coronavirus appeared as a result of a combination of various mutations in bats from Southeast Asia.

Researchers from the Pasteur Institute and Laos University have found viruses in the bodies of bats, the genome of which is very similar to the genetic structure of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19 disease. 

Scientists analyzed 645 wild bats of the small horseshoe (Rhinolophus) bat species in limestone caves in northern Laos and recorded three viruses in their bodies – BANAL-52, BANAL-103 BANAL-236.

It turned out that in all these three viruses, the genetic structure coincides by 95% with the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

In particular, the BANAL-52 genome – by 96.8%. It is noted that this is the first virus to have such a high identity with the virus that causes COVID-19.

Moreover, their genetic similarity refers to the most key protein that binds the cells of the virus to the receptors of the cells of the organisms into which it enters.

Based on this study, scientists once again say that the new coronavirus appeared as a result of a combination of various mutations in bats from Southeast Asia.

“When SARS-CoV-2 was first sequenced, the receptor binding domain didn’t really look like anything we’d seen before. This caused some people to speculate that the virus had been created in a laboratory. But the Laos coronaviruses confirm these parts of SARS-CoV-2 exist in nature,” the scientists say as cited by the Nature.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02596-2

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