Atypical Divergence of SARS-CoV-2 Orf8 from Orf7a within the Coronavirus Lineage Suggests Potential Stealthy Viral Strategies in Immune Evasion

Russell Y. Neches; Nikos C. Kyrpides; Christos A. Ouzounis

doi:10.1128/mBio.03014-20

mBio (Feb 2021)

Atypical Divergence of SARS-CoV-2 Orf8 from Orf7a within the Coronavirus Lineage Suggests Potential Stealthy Viral Strategies in Immune Evasion

Russell Y. Neches,
Nikos C. Kyrpides,
Christos A. Ouzounis

Affiliations

Russell Y. Neches: DOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley California, USA
Nikos C. Kyrpides: DOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley California, USA
Christos A. Ouzounis: ORCiD; Biological Computation and Process Laboratory, Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Thessalonica, Greece

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.03014-20
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 12, no. 1

Abstract

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Orf8 is one of the most puzzling genes in the SARS lineage of coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2. Using sophisticated sequence comparisons, we confirm its origins from Orf7a, another gene in the lineage that appears as more conserved, compared to Orf8.

Published in mBio

ISSN: 2161-2129 (Print); 2150-7511 (Online)
Publisher: American Society for Microbiology
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Science: Microbiology
Website: https://journals.asm.org/journal/mbio

About the journal