2020, Cilt 36, Sayı 5, Sayfa(lar) 058-060
Bioinformatics-aided identification of SARS CoV-2 (COVID-19)
Mehmet Özkan Timurkan, Hakan Aydın
Atatürk Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Viroloji Anabilim Dalı, Erzurum, Türkiye
Keywords: Coronavirus, Covid-19, pandemic
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Current increase in discovery of coronaviruses and their sequenced genomes gave us a unique opportunity to make genomic and bioinformatic analyses of this virus family. Coronaviruses have one of the largest genomes (approx. 30 kb) among known RNA viruses. These viruses have various genes (Open Reading Fream 1ab, spike, envelope, membrane and nucleocapsid). Furthermore Coronaviridae family has 4 genera (Alphacoronavirus, Beta-, Delta- and Gamma-) with Betacoronaviruses consisting of 4 subgroups phylogenetically, namely A, B, C and D. 2003 SARS coronavirus is shown to have 4x10-4 ile 2x10-2 difference with its common ancestor annually in a molecular structural analysis using different gene loci of coronaviruses. Coronaviruses are also known to have genetic recombination. This type of genetic interaction is reported among different murine hepatitis viruses (MHV), among different infectious bronchitis viruses, between MHV and bovine coronaviruses, between feline coronavirus type 1 and canine coronavirus and among human coronaviruses. Thus we need reports on characterization of viruses by analyzing bioinformatically to investigate and to understand the ever changing virus interactions which are shaped by mutations and genetic changes. In this review we explained and discussed the current status and potential future possibilities of lesser known but much needed coronavirus bioinformatics. We provided a general perspective of present and frequently used techniques and summarized the main advantages and disadvantages of the use of bioinformatic analyses of SARS CoV-2 for virology field.