Guan Siqin, Hu Xiaowen, Yi Guohui, Yao Lei, Zhang Jiaming
Key Laboratory of Microbiology of Hainan, Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Haikou, Hainan 571101, China.
College of Animal Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei Province 430070, China.
Sci One Health. 2023 Sep 28;2:100041. doi: 10.1016/j.soh.2023.100041. eCollection 2023.
More than 3 years have passed since the outbreak of COVID-19 and yet, the origin of the causal virus SARS-CoV-2 remains unknown. We examined the evolutionary trajectory of SARS-CoV-2 by analyzing non-redundant genome sets classified based on six closely linked mutations. The results indicated that SARS-CoV-2 emerged in February 2019 or earlier and evolved into three main haplotypes (GL, DS, and DL) before May 2019, which then continued to evolve in parallel. The dominant haplotype GL had spread worldwide in the summer (May to July) of 2019 and then evolved into virulent strains in December 2019 that triggered the global pandemic, whereas haplotypes DL and DS arrived in China in October 2019 and caused the epidemic in China in December 2019. Therefore, haplotype GL neither originated in China nor from the viral strains that caused the epidemic in China. Accordingly, considering data solely from China would be inadequate to reveal the mysterious origin of SARS-CoV-2, emphasizing the necessity of global cooperation.
自新冠疫情爆发已过去三年多，但引发疫情的病毒——严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）的起源仍不明朗。我们通过分析基于六个紧密连锁突变分类的非冗余基因组集，研究了SARS-CoV-2的进化轨迹。结果表明，SARS-CoV-2于2019年2月或更早出现，并在2019年5月之前进化为三种主要单倍型（GL、DS和DL），随后继续平行进化。占主导地位的单倍型GL于2019年夏季（5月至7月）在全球传播，然后在2019年12月进化为引发全球大流行的毒株，而单倍型DL和DS于2019年10月抵达中国，并在2019年12月引发中国疫情。因此，单倍型GL既非起源于中国，也非源自引发中国疫情的病毒株。相应地，仅考虑来自中国的数据不足以揭示SARS-CoV-2的神秘起源，这凸显了全球合作的必要性。
