The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak that emerged at the end of 2019 has now swept the world for more than 2 years, causing immeasurable damage to the lives and economies of the world. It has drawn so much attention to discovering how the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) originated and entered the human body. The current argument revolves around two contradictory theories: a scenario of laboratory spillover events and human contact with zoonotic diseases. Here, we reviewed the transmission, pathogenesis, possible hosts, as well as the genome and protein structure of SARS-CoV-2, which play key roles in the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe the coronavirus was originally transmitted to human by animals rather than by a laboratory leak. However, there still needs more investigations to determine the source of the pandemic. Understanding how COVID-19 emerged is vital to developing global strategies for mitigating future outbreaks.
Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; genome similarities; laboratory origin; protein structure evolution; zoonotic origin.
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