Predicting the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) utilizing capability as the receptor of SARS-CoV-2

• DOI: 10.1016/j.micinf.2020.03.003
• Publication Date: 2020-03-19T21:14:25Z
• Authors: Ye Qiu; Yuan-Bo Zhao; Qiong Wang; Jin-Yan Li; Zhi-Jian Zhou; Ce-Heng Liao; Xing-Yi Ge
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; Protein Conformation; Pneumonia, Viral; Immunology; Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A; Microbiology; Article; Birds; Betacoronavirus; 03 medical and health sciences; Species Specificity; Animals; Humans; Amino Acid Sequence; Pandemics; Phylogeny; Mammals; 0303 health sciences; SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; virology; 3. Good health; Infectious Diseases; Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2; Coronavirus Infections

SARS-CoV-2, the newly identified human coronavirus causing severe pneumonia epidemic, was probably originated from Chinese horseshoe bats. However, direct transmission of the virus from bats to humans is unlikely due to lack of direct contact, implying the existence of unknown intermediate hosts. Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the receptor of SARS-CoV-2, but only ACE2s of certain species can be utilized by SARS-CoV-2. Here, we evaluated and ranked the receptor-utilizing capability of ACE2s from various species by phylogenetic clustering and sequence alignment with the currently known ACE2s utilized by SARS-CoV-2, predicting potential intermediate hosts of SARS-CoV-2.