The first known relatives to the pandemic virus outside of China have been found in Japan and Cambodia, which could potentially bring researchers a step closer to understanding the pandemic's origin, according to a Nov. 23 Nature report.
Cambodia virus: The virus was found in two horseshoe bats stored in a laboratory freezer. The virus's genome hasn't been fully sequenced, but if it shares more than 97 percent of its genome with SARS-CoV-2, it could provide critical insight into how the novel coronavirus passed from bats to people, and serve as a stepping stone in the World Health Organization's search for the pandemic's origin. If it's more distantly related, it can help researchers learn more about this virus family's diversity. The full sequencing, which researchers hope to publish in the coming weeks, will also identify whether this virus can infect human cells.
Japan virus: Rc-o319, a pandemic-related virus, was found in frozen horseshoe bat droppings and shares 81 percent of its genome with the pandemic virus, according to Nature. It's too distantly related to inform the search for the pandemic's origin, but early cell studies suggest the virus could not easily infect people since it can't bind to the receptor SARS-CoV-2 uses to enter human cells.
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