ArticleNature microbiology2020
Evolutionary origins of the SARS-CoV-2 sarbecovirus lineage responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Nature microbiology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 590 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
590 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 1,062 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Meta-Analysis on the Immunogenicity of Homologous versus Heterologous Immunization Regimens against SARS-CoV-2 Beta, Delta, and Omicron BA.1 VoCs in Healthy Adults.Journal of microbiology and biotechnology · 2025Pooled it
- Tracing the origin of Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2): A systematic review and narrative synthesis.Journal of medical virology · 2022Pooled it
- Meta-analysis to explain unknown causes of the origins of SARS-COV-2.Environmental research · 2022Pooled it
- Article
- The Limits of Bayesian Estimates of Divergence Times in Measurably Evolving Populations.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Pangolin-Associated Viruses: Diversity, Evolutionary Adaptation, and Zoonotic Spillover Risks.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Review
- Article
- Peptides containing SARS-CoV-2 spike-protein residues are antagonists of α7 and α9α10 nAChRs and modulate interleukin-1β release from human monocytic THP-1 cells.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2026Article
- Characterization and evolutionary history of novel SARS-CoV-2-related viruses in bats from Cambodia.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Viral syncytia evolve to resist interferon.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Clade-3 Bat Sarbecovirus PRD0038 Reveals Constraints on Coronavirus Emergence and Immune Sensitivity.Research square · 2026Article
- COVID-19 vaccination induces cross-neutralisation of sarbecoviruses related to SARS-CoV-2.NPJ vaccines · 2026Article
- The Phylodynamic Threshold of Measurably Evolving Populations.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Article
- Article
- Superior RdRp Function Drives the Dominance of Prevalent GI.3 Norovirus Lineages.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Proteomic Signatures of SARS-CoV-2 Susceptibility in Mexican Free-tailed Bats and Their Application to Viral Surveillance.Integrative and comparative biology · 2025Article
- Reduction of extracellular vimentin in blood provides protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection.Virulence · 2025Article
- Review
- A tombus-like virus in patients with lower respiratory tract infection: an observational study based on meta-transcriptomic sequencing.Emerging microbes & infections · 2025Observational
530 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 7 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
Abstract
There are outstanding evolutionary questions on the recent emergence of human coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 including the role of reservoir species, the role of recombination and its time of divergence from animal viruses. We find that the sarbecoviruses-the viral subgenus containing SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2-undergo frequent recombination and exhibit spatially structured genetic diversity on a regional scale in China. SARS-CoV-2 itself is not a recombinant of any sarbecoviruses detected to date, and its receptor-binding motif, important for specificity to human ACE2 receptors, appears to be an ancestral trait shared with bat viruses and not one acquired recently via recombination. To employ phylogenetic dating methods, recombinant regions of a 68-genome sarbecovirus alignment were removed with three independent methods. Bayesian evolutionary rate and divergence date estimates were shown to be consistent for these three approaches and for two different prior specifications of evolutionary rates based on HCoV-OC43 and MERS-CoV. Divergence dates between SARS-CoV-2 and the bat sarbecovirus reservoir were estimated as 1948 (95% highest posterior density (HPD): 1879-1999), 1969 (95% HPD: 1930-2000) and 1982 (95% HPD: 1948-2009), indicating that the lineage giving rise to SARS-CoV-2 has been circulating unnoticed in bats for decades.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.