The SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site: natural selection or smoking gun?
Bailey Lubinski, Gary R. Whittaker
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 has continued to evolve as it moves through the population, and we have learned more about its pathogenicity and transmission determinants. As previously commented in The Lancet Microbe, one of these determinants is the unusual furin cleavage site (FCS) on its spike protein.1 While it has been proposed that the FCS might have been engineered, it is becoming clearer that natural selection is, in fact, the driving factor in its acquisition and functionality, through recombination and epistasis.
Topics & Concepts
FurinEctodomainCleavage (geology)IntracellularTrimerPopulationReceptorBiologyChemistryBiophysicsCell biologyBiochemistryDimerEnzymeMedicineEnvironmental healthOrganic chemistryFracture (geology)PaleontologySARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 ResearchViral Infections and Outbreaks ResearchAnimal Virus Infections Studies