{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,18]],"date-time":"2026-10-18T02:11:28Z","timestamp":1792289488885,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,27]],"date-time":"2021-05-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1622073600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["onlinelibrary.wiley.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["BioEssays"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,7]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:p>RaTG13, MP789, and RmYN02 are the strains closest to SARS\u2010CoV\u20102, and their existence came to light only after the start of the pandemic. Their genomes have been used to support a natural origin of SARS\u2010CoV\u20102 but after a close examination all of them exhibit several issues. We specifically address the presence in RmYN02 and closely related RacCSxxx strains of a claimed natural PAA\/PVA amino acid insertion at the S1\/S2 junction of their spike protein at the same position where the PRRA insertion in SARS\u2010CoV\u20102 has created a polybasic furin cleavage site. We show that RmYN02\/RacCSxxx instead of the claimed insertion carry a 6\u2010nucleotide deletion in the region and that the 12\u2010nucleotide insertion in SARS\u2010CoV\u20102 remains unique among Sarbecoviruses.\u00a0Also, our analysis of RaTG13 and RmYN02's metagenomic datasets found unexpected reads which could indicate possible contamination. Because of their importance to inferring SARS\u2010CoV\u20102\u2032s origin, we call for a careful reevaluation of RaTG13, MP789 and RmYN02 sequencing records and assembly methods.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/bies.202100015","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,28]],"date-time":"2021-05-28T06:41:54Z","timestamp":1622184114000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":20,"title":["SARS\u2010CoV\u20102\u2032s claimed natural origin is undermined by issues with genome sequences of its relative strains"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"43","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3397-5811","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yuri","family":"Deigin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Youthereum Genetics Inc.  Toronto Ontario Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2566-7042","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rossana","family":"Segreto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology University of Innsbruck  Innsbruck Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_9_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41586-020-2012-7"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3390\/v11110979"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cub.2020.05.023"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_5_1","article-title":"Discovery of a novel coronavirus associated with the recent pneumonia outbreak in humans and its potential bat origin","author":"Zhou P.","year":"2020","journal-title":"BioRxiv"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_6_1","unstructured":"Colaiacovo M.(2020).The origin of SARS\u2010CoV\u20102 is a riddle: Meet the Twitter detectives who aim to solve it.https:\/\/mygenomix.medium.com\/the-origin-of-sars-cov-2-is-a-riddle-meet-the-twitter-detectives-who-aim-to-solve-it-5050216fd279"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_7_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2020.581569"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_8_1","first-page":"1","article-title":"The genetic structure of SARS\u2010CoV\u20102 does not rule out a laboratory origin: SARS\u2010COV\u20102 chimeric structure and furin cleavage site might be the result of genetic manipulation","volume":"43","author":"Segreto R.","year":"2020","journal-title":"Bioessays"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_9_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s12250-016-3713-9"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_10_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/22221751.2020.1725399"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_11_1","unstructured":"Xu L.(2013).The analysis of 6 patients with severe pneumonia caused by unknown viruses (Master's Thesis). Kunming Medical University Emergency Medicine (professional degree).http:\/\/eng.oversea.cnki.net\/Kcms\/detail\/detail.aspx?filename=1013327523.nh&dbcode=CMFD&dbname=CMFD2014"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_12_1","unstructured":"Huang C.(2016).Novel virus discovery in bat and the exploration of receptor of bat coronavirus HKU9. (PhD Thesis). Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.http:\/\/eng.oversea.cnki.net\/kcms\/detail\/detail.aspx?dbcode=CDFD&dbname=CDFDLAST2018&filename=1017118517.nh"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_13_1","unstructured":"Latham J. &Wilson A. A Chinese PhD Thesis sheds important new light on the origin of the COVID\u201019 coronavirus.https:\/\/www.independentsciencenews.org\/commentaries\/a-chinese-phd-thesis-sheds-important-new-light-on-the-origin-of-the-covid-19-coronavirus\/"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_14_1","article-title":"Anomalies in BatCoV\/RaTG13 sequencing and provenance","author":"Zhang D.","year":"2020","journal-title":"Zenodo"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_15_1","article-title":"The anomalous nature of the fecal swab data, receptor binding domain and other questions in RaTG13 genome","author":"Rahalkar M. C.","year":"2020","journal-title":"Preprints"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_16_1","article-title":"De\u2010novo assembly of RaTG13 genome reveals inconsistencies further obscuring SARS\u2010CoV\u20102 origins","author":"Singla M.","year":"2020","journal-title":"Preprints"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_17_1","article-title":"Anomalous datasets reveal metagenomic fabrication pipeline that further questions the legitimacy of RaTG13 genome and the associated Nature paper","author":"Signus J.","journal-title":"viXra"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_18_1","unstructured":"Bat coronavirus RaTG13 complete genome NCBI.https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/nuccore\/MN996532.1replaced byhttps:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/nuccore\/MN996532"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_19_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.369.6503.487"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_20_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-017-14403-y"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_21_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41586-020-2313-x"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_22_1","article-title":"Single source of pangolin CoVs with a near identical Spike RBD to SARS\u2010CoV\u20102","author":"Chan A. Y.","year":"2020","journal-title":"BioRxiv"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_23_1","article-title":"The SARS\u2010CoV\u20102\u2010like virus found in captive pangolins from Guangdong should be better sequenced","author":"Hassanin A.","year":"2020","journal-title":"BioRxiv"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_24_1","article-title":"The Pan\u2010SL\u2010CoV\/GD sequences may be from contamination","author":"Zhang D.","year":"2020","journal-title":"Zenodo"},{"key":"e_1_2_9_25_1","unstructured":"USRTK. 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