Milad Zandi1,2. 1. Department of Virology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 2. Research Center for Clinical Virology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
severe acute respiratory syndromesevere acute respiratory syndrome‐2Dear EditorI read with interest the article by AL‐Eitan et al.
of Pharmacogenomics of genetic polymorphism within the genes responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome‐2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) susceptibility and the drug‐metabolising genes used in treatment. I appreciate their article, however, the authors reported that “Structural proteins in SARS‐CoV‐2 particles, include spike glycoprotein (S), envelope protein (E), membrane protein (M), nucleocapsid protein (N) and hemagglutinin‐esterase protein (HE)”; in addition, the authors presented HE as a structural protein of SARS‐CoV‐2 in fig. 1a.
But based on scientific evidence, the genome of SARS‐CoV‐2 as a Betacoronavirus of Sarbecovirus (lineage B) lacks HE gene
,
,
; thus, SARS‐CoV‐2 encodes four structural proteins: S, E, M and N.
,Phylogenetic analysis showed that the SARS‐CoV‐2 fell within the subgenus Sarbecovirus (lineage B) of the genus Betacoronavirus.
Viruses in subgenus Sarbecovirus such as SARS‐CoV‐2 and SARS‐CoV cannot encode HE; however, HKU1‐CoV, OC43‐CoV, murine hepatitis virus and Bovine‐CoV as subgenus Embecovirus (lineage A) of genus Betacoronavirus encode five structural proteins: S, E, M, and N and HE.
,In conclusion, SARS‐CoV‐2, the causative agent of the Covid‐19, lacks HE protein.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTION
Conceptualisation, supervision, writing‐original draft, visualisation, writing‐review and editing: Milad Zandi.