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. 2021 Jan;40(1):79-85.
doi: 10.1002/zoo.21576. Epub 2020 Oct 9.

Predicting susceptibility for SARS-CoV-2 infection in domestic and wildlife animals using ACE2 protein sequence homology

Ashutosh Kumar  1   2 , Sada N Pandey  1   3 , Vikas Pareek  1   4 , Ravi K Narayan  1   2 , Muneeb A Faiq  1   5 , Chiman Kumari  1   6
Affiliations

Predicting susceptibility for SARS-CoV-2 infection in domestic and wildlife animals using ACE2 protein sequence homology

Ashutosh Kumar et al. Zoo Biol. 2021 Jan.

Abstract

The article is presenting a bioinformatics based method predicting susceptibility for SARS-CoV-2 infection in domestic and wildlife animals. Recently, there were reports of cats and ferrets, dogs, minks, golden hamster, rhesus monkeys, tigers, and lions testing for SARS-CoV-2 RNA which indicated for the possible interspecies viral transmission. Our method successfully predicted the susceptibility of these animals for contracting SARS-CoV-2 infection. This method can be used as a screening tool for guiding viral RNA testing for domestic and wildlife animals at risk of getting COVID-19. We provide a list of the animals at risk of developing COVID-19 based on the susceptibility score.

Keywords: ACE2; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; pets; susceptibility; wildlife.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflict of interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Interaction of SARS‐CoV‐2 receptor‐binding domain RBD with Human ACE2. (a) Human ACE2 (gray)—RBD (red)‐binding interface. (b) Segment of Human ACE2 (magenta) consisting of conserved RBD‐binding hotspots (36–53 aa) at the RBD‐binding interface. (c) Important residues participating in the interactions at Human ACE2 (yellow)‐RBD (cyan) interface. Source: RCSB protein data bank, PBD1D‐6M0J. Software used: PyMOL built by Schrodinger, Inc. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
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