• Ye Qiu, Yuan-Bo Zhao, Qiong Wang, Jin-Yan Li, Zhi-Jian Zhou, Ce-Heng Liao, and Xing-Yi Ge.
• Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Virology, Institute of Pathogen Biology and Immunology, College of Biology, Hunan University, 27 Tianma Rd., Changsha, Hunan, 410012, China.
• Microbes Infect. 2020 May 1; 22 (4-5): 221-225.

AbstractSARS-CoV-2, the newly identified human coronavirus causing severe pneumonia pandemic, was probably originated from Chinese horseshoe bats. However, direct transmission of the virus from bats to humans is unlikely due to lack of direct contact, implying the existence of unknown intermediate hosts. Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the receptor of SARS-CoV-2, but only ACE2s of certain species can be utilized by SARS-CoV-2. Here, we evaluated and ranked the receptor-utilizing capability of ACE2s from various species by phylogenetic clustering and sequence alignment with the currently known ACE2s utilized by SARS-CoV-2. As a result, we predicted that SARS-CoV-2 tends to utilize ACE2s of various mammals, except murines, and some birds, such as pigeon. This prediction may help to screen the intermediate hosts of SARS-CoV-2.Copyright © 2020 Institut Pasteur. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

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