Research finds rodents could be asymptomatic carriers of SARS-like coronaviruses
NEW JERSEY: According to a new research, ancestral rodents possibly have been infected with SARS-like coronaviruses repeatedly, which has made them form a resistance towards the pathogens. This means that they are likely to be asymptomatic carriers of SARS-like coronaviruses. Conducted by Sean King and Mona Singh of Princeton University, this research was published in 'PLoS Computational Biology Journal'. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19 infection, is of zoonotic origin--it jumped from a non-human animal to humans. Previous research has shown that Chinese Horseshoe bats are a host of numerous SARS-like viruses and tolerate these viruses without extreme symptoms. Identifying other animals that have adapted tolerance mechanisms to coronaviruses is important for awareness of potential viral reservoirs that can spread new pathogens to humans. In the new research, King and Singh performed an evolutionary analysis, across mammalian species, of the ACE2 receptors, used b...