Name: Scientists: Coronavirus likely a hybrid of two other viruses
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Scientists: Coronavirus likely a hybrid of two other viruses

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Horrible Luck6. 2. 20&nbsp;&nbsp;by&nbsp;6. 2. 20&nbsp;&nbsp;Researchers may have finally figured out why it's been so difficult to tell where the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 — which causes COVID-19 — came from within the animal kingdom.While most evidence suggests that the virus before infecting people, a genetic analysis of it never identified a perfect match among known bat diseases. Now, scientists think that's because SARS-CoV-2 is actually a genetic hybrid, : it seems to be the result of two separate viruses that swapped genes somewhere along the way.The surface of SARS-CoV-2 is dotted with spike proteins that help it stick onto human cells, like biological Velcro. While the rest of its genetic code matches a bat virus, the portion of SAR-CoV-2's genome that creates those spike proteins does not.Instead, relevant genes appear to have come from a pangolin coronavirus, published Friday in the journal Science Advances. At some point prior to infecting humans, the researchers believe, the two coronaviruses engaged in a process called recombination to create a hybrid that is now causing a pandemic in humans around the world.Recombination can occur between two unrelated viruses — like a bat and pangolin coronavirus — if they've infected the same host, Ars Technica reports. One virus's cellular machinery messes up while trying to reproduce itself,&nbsp;and the other virus takes over, inserting its genome into the partially-completed strand of genetic material.On one hand, Ars Technica reports, the study explains the origin of SARS-CoV-2 in terms of natural biological processes, helping that it was engineered in a lab.But it also suggests that other hybrids could be out there, forming on their own in unknowing animal hosts — an ominous possibility.READ MORE: [Ars Technica]More on SARS-CoV-2: Keep up.Subscribe to our daily newsletter to keep in touch with the subjects shaping our future.Copyright ©, Camden Media Inc All Rights Reserved. See our , . The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with prior written permission of Futurism. Fonts by Typekit and Monotype.

Horrible Luck6. 2. 20&nbsp;&nbsp;by&nbsp;6. 2. 20&nbsp;&nbsp;Researchers may have finally figured out why it's been so difficult to tell where the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 — which causes COVID-19 — came from within the animal kingdom.While most evidence suggests that the virus before infecting people, a genetic analysis of it never identified a perfect match among known bat diseases. Now, scientists think that's because SARS-CoV-2 is actually a genetic hybrid, : it seems to be the result of two separate viruses that swapped genes somewhere along the way.The surface of SARS-CoV-2 is dotted...

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Scientists: Coronavirus likely a hybrid of two other viruses

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