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Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 is a member of the subgenus Sarbecovirus and thus contains the genetic element s2m. We have extensively mined nucleotide data in GenBank in order to obtain a comprehensive list of s2m sequences both in the four virus families where s2m has previously been described and in other groups of organisms. Surprisingly, there seems to be a xenologue of s2m in a large number of insect species. The function of s2m is unknown, but our data show a very high degree of sequence conservation both in insects and in viruses and that the version of s2m found in SARS-CoV-2 has unique features, not seen in any other virus or insect strains.

  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The Microbiology Society waived the open access fees for this article.
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/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/jgv.0.001551
2021-01-11
2024-04-25
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