Chat message

Slack / Private Message Drop, p.70 [SLACK_000284] · slack_pm:msg:00714

Date: 2020-06-11 15:18
Type: chat message · slack
recipient: Kristian G. Andersen, Robert F. Garry, Andrew Rambaut
speaker: Edward C. Holmes
Topics: Furin cleavage site and molecular features

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My take is that furin cleavage sites are *everywhere* in natural viruses e.g. MERS. I'm revising a paper on avianavulaviruses and they have one. To me, there is a strong natural prior.

Extracted statements

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Statement	Grade	Attribution	Stance
My take is that furin cleavage sites are everywhere in natural viruses e.g.	own voice, substantive	speaker_own	asserts

Statement

Grade

Attribution

Stance

My take is that furin cleavage sites are *everywhere* in natural viruses e.g.

own voice, substantive

speaker_own

asserts

In context

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2020-06-11 15:15 Edward C. Holmes open

At S1/S2?
2020-06-11 15:15 Kristian G. Andersen open

Yup - the paper above is _exactly_ where it was inserted in SARS2 - that's the part I missed previously (I have been aware of these papers all the time).
2020-06-11 15:16 Kristian G. Andersen open

(BUT, the inserted site _is not_ the same as in the paper - that would have been a dead giveaway)
2020-06-11 15:16 Edward C. Holmes open

We're going round in circles...that's the Follis paper...the first paper we discussed and I sent you in early Feb.
2020-06-11 15:18 Edward C. Holmes

My take is that furin cleavage sites are *everywhere* in natural viruses e.g. MERS. I'm revising a paper on avianavulaviruses and they have one. To me, there is a strong natural prior.
2020-06-11 15:18 Kristian G. Andersen open

Yes - I have been aware of the Follis paper all along - I was _not_ aware that their insertion was exactly where it is inSARS2
2020-06-11 15:20 Edward C. Holmes open

Also, the Zhou et al. paper never call it a furin cleavage site insertion and I think the alignment in that paper is the optimal one. If so, it is not a simple 'shift' but rather a complex set of indel events.
2020-06-11 15:20 Kristian G. Andersen open

Here's the paper from Baric - not the insertion, but showing that cleavage broadens host range (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31801868/) - which is what furin does. This is also not a new paper - I have been aware of this all along as well, so not a smoking gun, but there are several concerns here related to tissue culture
2020-06-11 15:21 Kristian G. Andersen open

I don't think the Zhou et al. paper shows that this is multiple indels - to me it just looks like a region not aligning very well?

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