Name: RAÑOLA, ANDREY MARY C.

Section: 06035

COVID-19

Chemical Properties and Composition

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 which is also known as SARS-CoV-

2 actually causes the COVID-19 disease belongs to the beta coronavirus, it is one of the

seven coronaviruses to be known as a type of coronavirus that infects the humans.

Symptoms of common cold are manifested slightly in Four (4) of this coronaviruses. A

much more severe symptoms and can even cause fatality belongs to the 3 remaining

types of coronavirus which are known as SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and now COVID-19 or

SARS-CoV-2.

The shape of SARS-CoV-2 is round or elliptical and often pleomorphic with a diameter

depending approximately between 60 to 140 nm. (Scheller et al. 2020) SARS-CoV-2 is

known to be an enveloped virus, mostly shapes of enveloped viruses is different from one

single virus to the other because their lipophilic envelope. Which can integrate different

types and amounts of proteins that allows its malleability or moldability. According to Zhu

(2020), generally SARS-CoV-2 particles look spherical but in his presented electron

micrographs it is shown that there are some pleomorphism. It has distinctive spikes that

are about 9-12 nm long protruding from the particle's main surface which looks like a solar

corona. This cannot only be seen in SARS-CoV-2 but also to other Coronaviridae family.
According to Shi (2020), SARS-CoV-2 is a linear, single-stranded, positive RNA virus.

While it's viral genome structure is approximately 29903nt (GenBank, MN908947.3) in

length. The genome of SARS-CoV-2 contains two (2) flanking untranslated regions

(UTRs) and a long Open Reading Frame (ORF). The arrangement for which is 5’-

replicase (ORF1ab)-structural proteins [Spike (S)-Envelope (E)-Membrane (M)-

Nucleocapsid (N)]−3’ (9,). It shares both the genome sequence identity of MERS-CoV

and SARS-CoV. 79% genome sequence identity matched with SARS-CoV while with

MERS-CoV only 50%. With a higher match with SARS-CoV, most of the proteins in

SARS-CoV-2 have a similar length to the accessory proteins that interspersed with the

structural genes of SARS-CoV. Except for the S gene or protein that diverges, SARS-

CoV-2 shares more than 90% amino acid identity with SARS-CoV. The S gene of SARS-

CoV-2 has a full size of 1,273 amino acids which are longer than SARS-CoV that has

1,255 amino acids. SARS-CoV-2 is also known that has an insertion of four (4) amino

acid residues(PRRA) which are V483A, L4551, F456V, and G476S that are located at the

junction of subunits S1 and S2 of the S protein near the binding interface in the RBD.

Which differentiates it with other known coronaviruses or related viruses because with

this insertion it generates a polybasic cleavage site that enables effective cleavage by

furin and other proteases.

According to Hu (2020), the other additional distinction of SARS-CoV-2 are the accessory

gene orf8. It shows that SARS-CoV-2 contains a novel protein that has a 40% amino acid

identity with the orf8 of SARS-CoV. SARS-CoV's orf8 protein has a motif that triggers
intracellular stress pathways while the findings do not show that SARS-CoV-2's new

protein have it. And the other distinction is the marker mutation for SARS-CoV-2 evolution

is the amino acid substitution of Ser for Lys with a residue of 84 of the orf8 protein that

was made because of the single-nucleotide polymorphism at the nucleotide position

28,144.
Name: RAÑOLA, ANDREY MARY C.

Section: 06035

COVID-19

Taxonomy

The overall the Coronaviradae family is known for a type of virus that's the main surface

area of the virus has ring projections. Seen under the electron microscope, coronaviradae

viruses are notable to have a solar crown or corona. From the latin meaning of crown is

where the Corona of Coronaviradae came from. They are large, enveloped, icosahedral

symmetric particles that are about 80-220 nm in diameter. They also have a positive-

sense RNA genome that have a size about 26-32 kb which is the largest known RNA

virus.

Coronaviradae family is one of the largest groups of viruses that are categorized to the

order Nidovirales, and to the suborder Coridovirineae. This family is classified between

two subfamilies that are named Torovirinae and Coronavirinae. Coronavirinae is

subdivided into alpha(α) coronavirus, beta(β) coronavirus, delta(δ) coronavirus, and

gamma(γ) coronavirus. The members of the main subfamily, coronavirinae are common

among mammals and are often showing symptoms of only mild respiratory or enteric

infections. According to Woo (2012), For coronavirus their ideal hosts are mostly bats for

alpha(α) and beta(β) coronavirus. As for delta(δ) and gamma(γ) coronavirus' ideal hosts

are birds. Beta coronavirus have five (5) subgenera which are Embecovirus (previously
known as lineage A), Sarbecovirus (previously known as lineage B), Merbecovirus

(previously known as lineage C), Nobecovirus (previously known as lineage D), and

Hibecovirus. As shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Taxonomy of SARS-CoV-2

Coronaviridae Study Group (CSG) developed the said taxonomy and family classification

with International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). They assess the place of

the new viruses by using their relation to other known viruses in the established taxa and

that includes the placements relating to the species related to SARS-CoV. Assigning and

naming of individual living organisms requires specialized knowledge and tools to assess

the individual differences that are required. With the use of computational framework of
comparative genomics, CSG along with ICTV are the ones in charge for the

categorization and naming of the order.

The first known coronavirus case was from poultry with respiratory disease, infectious

bronchitis was dated back in the 1930s and still a world wide problem in the poultry

production industry. According to Helmy (2020), The first isolated case of humans which

were infected with coronavirus was dated back 1960s which was named B814, most of

them where hospitalized who are having a common cold symptoms. Last 2019 there had

been a new emerging virus closely related to SARS-CoV from bats and MERS-CoV, from

the Sarbecovirus also known as lineage B of Beta coronavirus, which in now known to be

SARS-CoV-2. It was officialy named by the International Committee on Taxonomy of

Viruses, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), based on the

phylogenetic analysis. According to Liu (2020), SARS-CoV-2 is a spill over from an animal

coronavirus then it adapted to a human-to-human transmission. It is easily transmissible

and continue to evolve in different countries and places. According to the World Health

Organization, since last December 2019 COVID-19 pandemic had spread globally and

resulted with 2,527,891 deaths and 113,820,168 confirmed cases as of 1 March 2021.