The origins of SARS-CoV-2: A critical review

Edward C Holmes; Stephen A Goldstein; Angela L Rasmussen; David L Robertson; Alexander Crits-Christoph; Joel O Wertheim; Simon J Anthony; Wendy S Barclay; Maciej F Boni; Peter C Doherty; Jeremy Farrar; Jemma L Geoghegan; Xiaowei Jiang; Julian L Leibowitz; Stuart J D Neil; Tim Skern; Susan R Weiss; Michael Worobey; Kristian G Andersen; Robert F Garry; Andrew Rambaut

doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.017

The origins of SARS-CoV-2: A critical review

Cell. 2021 Sep 16;184(19):4848-4856. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.017. Epub 2021 Aug 19.

Authors

Edward C Holmes¹, Stephen A Goldstein², Angela L Rasmussen³, David L Robertson⁴, Alexander Crits-Christoph⁵, Joel O Wertheim⁶, Simon J Anthony⁷, Wendy S Barclay⁸, Maciej F Boni⁹, Peter C Doherty¹⁰, Jeremy Farrar¹¹, Jemma L Geoghegan¹², Xiaowei Jiang¹³, Julian L Leibowitz¹⁴, Stuart J D Neil¹⁵, Tim Skern¹⁶, Susan R Weiss¹⁷, Michael Worobey¹⁸, Kristian G Andersen¹⁹, Robert F Garry²⁰, Andrew Rambaut²¹

Affiliations

¹ Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, School of Life and Environmental Sciences and School of Medical Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Electronic address: edward.holmes@sydney.edu.au.
² Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA.
³ Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E3, Canada.
⁴ MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow G61 1QH, UK.
⁵ Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA.
⁶ Department of Medicine, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
⁷ Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
⁸ Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College, London W2 1PG, UK.
⁹ Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Melbourne at the Doherty Institute, 792 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia.
¹¹ The Wellcome Trust, London NW1 2BE, UK.
¹² Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago, Dunedin 9010, New Zealand; Institute of Environmental Science and Research, Wellington 5022, New Zealand.
¹³ Department of Biological Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), Suzhou, China.
¹⁴ Department of Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77807, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Infectious Diseases, King's College London, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 9RT, UK.
¹⁶ Max Perutz Labs, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna Biocenter, Dr. Bohr-Gasse 9/3, 1030 Vienna, Austria.
¹⁷ Department of Microbiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
²⁰ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA; Zalgen Labs, Germantown, MD 20876, USA.
²¹ Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, UK. Electronic address: a.rambaut@ed.ac.uk.

Abstract

Since the first reports of a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-like coronavirus in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, there has been intense interest in understanding how severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in the human population. Recent debate has coalesced around two competing ideas: a "laboratory escape" scenario and zoonotic emergence. Here, we critically review the current scientific evidence that may help clarify the origin of SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; evolution; origins; zoonosis.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Biological Evolution
COVID-19 / virology
Humans
Laboratories
SARS-CoV-2 / genetics
SARS-CoV-2 / physiology*
Zoonoses / virology

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding