CC BY 4.0 · Glob Med Genet 2020; 07(03): 092-094
DOI: 10.1055/s-0040-1721080
Rapid Communication

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2): Codon Usage and Replicative Fitness

1   Department of Biosciences, Biotechnologies, and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari, Bari, Italy
› Author Affiliations
Funding None.

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) codon usage, as shown by the polyprotein coding sequence, shows better translation potential in the human host when compared with human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43) codon usage. Such translational advantage might facilitate SARS-CoV-2 replication, immunogenicity, and pathogenicity, thus also accounting for the less harmful character of HCoV-OC43 infection.

Supplementary Material



Publication History

Article published online:
02 December 2020

© 2020. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Rüdigerstraße 14, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

 
  • References

  • 1 Wang Z, Yang B, Li Q, Wen L, Zhang R. Clinical features of 69 cases with Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Wuhan, China. Clin Infect Dis 2020; 71 (15) 769-777
  • 2 Cameron MJ, Bermejo-Martin JF, Danesh A, Muller MP, Kelvin DJ. Human immunopathogenesis of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Virus Res 2008; 133 (01) 13-19
  • 3 Kanduc D. From anti-SARS-CoV-2 immune responses to COVID-19 via molecular mimicry. Antibodies (Basel) 2020; 9 (03) E33
  • 4 Lin YS, Lin CF, Fang YT. et al. Antibody to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-associated coronavirus spike protein domain 2 cross-reacts with lung epithelial cells and causes cytotoxicity. Clin Exp Immunol 2005; 141 (03) 500-508
  • 5 Kanduc D, Shoenfeld Y. On the molecular determinants of the SARS-CoV-2 attack. Clin Immunol 2020; 215: 108426
  • 6 Zhao J, Yuan Q, Wang H. et al. Antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 in patients of novel coronavirus disease 2019. Clin Infect Dis 2020; (e-pub ahead of print). DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciaa344.
  • 7 Lim YX, Ng YL, Tam JP, Liu DX. Human coronaviruses: a review of virus–host interactions. Diseases 2016; 4 (03) 26
  • 8 Kanduc D. Role of codon usage and tRNA changes in rat cytomegalovirus latency and (re)activation. J Basic Microbiol 2016; 56 (06) 617-626
  • 9 Kanduc D. Rare human codons and HCMV translational regulation. J Mol Microbiol Biotechnol 2017; 27 (04) 213-216
  • 10 Nakamura Y, Gojobori T, Ikemura T. Codon usage tabulated from international DNA sequence databases: status for the year 2000. Nucleic Acids Res 2000; 28 (01) 292
  • 11 Quax TE, Claassens NJ, Söll D, van der Oost J. Codon bias as a means to fine-tune gene expression. Mol Cell 2015; 59 (02) 149-161
  • 12 Supek F. The code of silence: widespread associations between synonymous codon biases and gene function. J Mol Evol 2016; 82 (01) 65-73
  • 13 Tijms MA, Nedialkova DD, Zevenhoven-Dobbe JC, Gorbalenya AE, Snijder EJ. Arterivirus subgenomic mRNA synthesis and virion biogenesis depend on the multifunctional nsp1 autoprotease. J Virol 2007; 81 (19) 10496-10505
  • 14 Krichel B, Falke S, Hilgenfeld R, Redecke L, Uetrecht C. Processing of the SARS-CoV pp1a/ab nsp7-10 region. Biochem J 2020; 477 (05) 1009-1019
  • 15 Agrawal AS, Tao X, Algaissi A. et al. Immunization with inactivated Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus vaccine leads to lung immunopathology on challenge with live virus. Hum Vaccin Immunother 2016; 12 (09) 2351-2356
  • 16 Cameron MJ, Kelvin AA, Leon AJ. et al. Lack of innate interferon responses during SARS coronavirus infection in a vaccination and reinfection ferret model. PLoS One 2012; 7 (09) e45842
  • 17 Tseng CT, Sbrana E, Iwata-Yoshikawa N. et al. Immunization with SARS coronavirus vaccines leads to pulmonary immunopathology on challenge with the SARS virus. PLoS One 2012; 7 (04) e35421
  • 18 Yasui F, Kai C, Kitabatake M. et al. Prior immunization with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) nucleocapsid protein causes severe pneumonia in mice infected with SARS-CoV. J Immunol 2008; 181 (09) 6337-6348
  • 19 Kanduc D, Shoenfeld Y. Inter-pathogen peptide sharing and the original antigenic sin: solving a paradox. Open Immunol J 2018; 8: 16-27
  • 20 Kanduc D. Immunogenicity, Immunopathogenicity, and Immunotolerance in One Graph. Anticancer Agents Med Chem 2015; 15: 1264-1268 . Doi: 10.2174/1871520615666150716105543
  • 21 Kanduc D. Hydrophobicity and the Physico-Chemical Basis of Immunotolerance. Pathobiology 2020; 87: 268-276