Comparison of SARS-cov-2 RdRp protein with SARS-cov RdRp protein

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared, on January 30, 2020, a public health emergency of international scope because of the emergence of a new virus called SARS-cov-2. This new virus belongs to the coronavirus family and has a protein called RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) which is responsible for the replication of viral RNA. RdRp protein is one of the most primary targets for antiviral drug discoveries. The aim of this paper was to compare the amino acid sequence of the RdRp of SARS-cov-2 with that of SARS-cov. Thus, we found that there is a 96% sequence similarity between them. Indeed, there is only a difference at the level of 32 amino acids. Interestingly, only one residue at C Motif and two residues at D Motif are different. However, all the residues of the motifs A, B, E, F and G are 100% identical with those of SARS-cov-RdRp.