TY - JOUR
AU - Pekar, Jonathan E.
AU - Magee, Andrew
AU - Parker, Edyth
AU - Moshiri, Niema
AU - Izhikevich, Katherine
AU - Havens, Jennifer L.
AU - Gangavarapu, Karthik
AU - Malpica Serrano, Lorena
AU - Crits-Christoph, Alexander
AU - Matteson, Nathaniel L.
AU - Zeller, Mark
AU - Levy, Joshua I.
AU - Wang, Jade C.
AU - Hughes, Scott
AU - Lee, Jungmin
AU - Park, Heedo
AU - Park, Man Seong
AU - Ching Zi Yan, Katherine
AU - Lin, Raymond Tzer Pin
AU - Mat Isa, Mohd Noor
AU - Noor, Yusuf Muhammad
AU - Vasylyeva, Tetyana I.
AU - Garry, Robert F.
AU - Holmes, Edward C.
AU - Rambaut, Andrew
AU - Suchard, Marc A.
AU - Andersen, Kristian G.
AU - Worobey, Michael
AU - Wertheim, Joel O.
PY - 2022
DA - July
TI - The molecular epidemiology of multiple zoonotic origins of SARS-CoV-2
JO - Science
EP - 966
VL - 377
IS - 6609
DO - https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abp8337
AB - Understanding the circumstances that lead to pandemics is important for their prevention. We analyzed the genomic diversity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) early in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We show that SARS-CoV-2 genomic diversity before February 2020 likely comprised only two distinct viral lineages, denoted "A" and "B." Phylodynamic rooting methods, coupled with epidemic simulations, reveal that these lineages were the result of at least two separate cross-species transmission events into humans. The first zoonotic transmission likely involved lineage B viruses around 18 November 2019 (23 October to 8 December), and the separate introduction of lineage A likely occurred within weeks of this event. These findings indicate that it is unlikely that SARS-CoV-2 circulated widely in humans before November 2019 and define the narrow window between when SARS-CoV-2 first jumped into humans and when the first cases of COVID-19 were reported. As with other coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 emergence likely resulted from multiple zoonotic events.
PB - American Association for the Advancement of Science
UR - https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/0aedf9a0-caa6-47f9-8703-81ef96fe1c8a
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
ER