---
type: Conversation
title: Private channel session 131
description: "slack conversation, 20 messages, 2020-06-06."
tags:
  - conversation
  - slack
medium: slack
message_count: 20
started_at: "2020-06-06T02:28:19"
ended_at: "2020-06-06T04:24:09"
duration_seconds: 6950
sources:
  - { id: slack_pm, resource: /sources/slack-pm.md, title: Slack / Private Message Drop, author: "process:senate-hsgac-release" }
generated: { by: randpaul-corpus-pipeline/1.0, at: "2026-08-01T12:42:27Z" }
status: stable
---

A slack conversation of 20 messages spanning 1h 55m.

# Metadata

- **Started:** 2020-06-06T02:28:19
- **Ended:** 2020-06-06T04:24:09
- **Duration:** 1h 55m
- **Participants:** 3
- **Source:** [slack_pm](/sources/slack-pm.md)
- **Pages:** 56-58

# Participants

* [Andrew Rambaut](/people/andrew-rambaut.md)
* [Edward C. Holmes](/people/edward-c-holmes.md)
* [Kristian G. Andersen](/people/kristian-g-andersen.md)
* [Robert F. Garry](/people/robert-f-garry.md)

# Transcript

**[2020-06-06T02:28:19] Robert F. Garry:** https://elifesciences.org/articles/58603 a-subunit (ENaC-a) how looks in other species? Would be interesting to know a is?

**[2020-06-06T02:29:09] Robert F. Garry:** SARS-CoV-2 strategically mimics proteolytic activation of human ENaC

**[2020-06-06T02:29:12] Robert F. Garry:** human epithelial sodium channel 
-subunit (ENaC-
)

**[2020-06-06T02:38:33] Robert F. Garry:** Sorry - messed up the links above - the elife paper does a considerable amt of arm waving over an 8 amino acid homology -the furin site - but "interesting" that the furin site in both SARS-CoV-2 and ENaC-
 has predicted O-linked glycans PLUS ENaC-
 has another proline, serine, threonine rich stretch - a likely mucin domain - OC43 and HKU1 Spike also have this.

**[2020-06-06T02:51:28] Robert F. Garry:** "RTT plot for Ebola is super interesting" Agree - how do the RBDs align on the different branches?

**[2020-06-06T03:10:21] Edward C. Holmes:** Got it. I don't suppose we know much about how ENaC-
 how looks in other species? Would be interesting to know what species OC43 and HKU1 originated in.

**[2020-06-06T03:20:32] Edward C. Holmes:** Going through our scenarios, if true would the ENaC-
 + furin link argue for undetected circulation in humans? Possibly to get in animal passage? Could it explain why the furin site is sometimes lost in cell culture? It is clearly doing something. Bill's theory explains how it was created, but it would also be nice to understand how it ismaintained.

**[2020-06-06T03:28:10] Andrew Rambaut:** Sorry - I am being dumb here. Can you layout exact what the proposed connection with ENaC-
 is?

**[2020-06-06T03:29:05] Edward C. Holmes:** shared file(s): elife-58603-v1.pdf

**[2020-06-06T03:29:13] Edward C. Holmes:** Figure 1

**[2020-06-06T03:30:21] Andrew Rambaut:** But not suggesting this was the source of the insertion recombination?

**[2020-06-06T03:30:59] Andrew Rambaut:** Just why it might be doing in humans.

**[2020-06-06T03:31:33] Edward C. Holmes:** No. But it explains why it is beneficial. A bit of undetected circulation in humans would solve a lot of problems.

**[2020-06-06T03:37:32] Andrew Rambaut:** I see it now. Interesting.

**[2020-06-06T03:38:30] Andrew Rambaut:** But then we have the source of the nucleotides to think about?

**[2020-06-06T03:42:19] Andrew Rambaut:** Just when I think I have this thing straight in my mind.

**[2020-06-06T03:53:17] Andrew Rambaut:** @Robert Garry Do you have the nucleotide sequence for this? Could it be the actual source of the insertion?

**[2020-06-06T04:21:16] Andrew Rambaut:** This is interesting: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5312086/

**[2020-06-06T04:21:45] Andrew Rambaut:** shared file(s): image.png

**[2020-06-06T04:24:09] Andrew Rambaut:** Suggests a progressive accumulation of the polybasic site in passaging.