SARS-CoV-2 virus genome structure and evolution

Abstract

Late December 2019, a new virus outbreak was detected in Wuhan, Hubei province China and later spread all over the world.The virus is a new strain of the β-Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) with a single strand positive sense RNA, and a genome size of 29,890 kb that codes for 9744 amino acids. Not many mutations are depicted in the SARS-CoV-2 genome, However, most of them are detected in the ORF8 regionand the spike. The latter exhibits higher affinity with the Human ACE2 receptor than the SARS-CoV.Alignment of SARS-CoV-2 genome with other Corona viruses shows a high similarity to the Bat-CoV,but this latter was not enough to conclude that the Bat is the origin of the Human SARS-CoV-2. This review aimed to provide an overview of the viral genome structure and its origin.