Zoonotic spill-over of SARS-CoV-2: mink-adapted virus in humans.
Lukasz Rabalski1
Maciej Kosinski1
Natalia Mazur-Panasiuk2
Boguslaw Szewczyk1
Krystyna Bienkowska-Szewczyk1
Ravi Kant3
Tarja Sironen3
Krzysztof Pyrc4
Maciej Grzybek5
Affiliations5 institutions
Faculty of Biotechnology of University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk, Gdańsk, Poland.
Małopolska Centre of Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
Department of Virology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Małopolska Centre of Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. Electronic address: [email protected].
Institute of Maritime and Tropical Medicine, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdynia, Poland. Electronic address: [email protected].
This work aimed to analyse possible zoonotic spill-over of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We report the spill-over of mink-adapted SARS-CoV-2 from farmed mink to humans after adaptation that lasted at least 3 months. Next-generation sequencing and a bioinformatic approach were applied to analyse the data. In an isolate obtained from an asymptomatic patient testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, we found four distinguishing mutations in the S gene that gave rise to the mink-adapted variant (G75V, M177T, Y453F, and C1247F) and others. Zoonotic spill-over of SARS-CoV-2 can occur from mink to human.
Next-generation sequencing and a bioinformatic approach were applied to analyse the data. In an isolate obtained from an asymptomatic patient testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, we found four distinguishing mutations in the S gene that gave rise to the mink-adapted variant (G75V, M177T, Y453F, and C1247F).
In an isolate obtained from an asymptomatic patient testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, we found four distinguishing mutations in the S gene that gave rise to the mink-adapted variant (G75V, M177T, Y453F, and C1247F).
Genes or proteins
S gene
Mutations
G75V; M177T; Y453F; C1247F
Mechanism types
host_adaptation; molecular_adaptation
Spillover Event1 records
Spillover EventExtraction confidence 0.98
Key finding
Mink-adapted SARS-CoV-2 spilled over from farmed mink to humans, showing mutations characteristic of adaptation in mink.
