The emerging
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its variants have raised tantalizing questions about evolutionary mechanisms that continue to shape biology today. We have compared the nucleotide sequence of
SARS-CoV-2 RNA to that of genomes of many different viruses, of endosymbiotic
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The emerging
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its variants have raised tantalizing questions about evolutionary mechanisms that continue to shape biology today. We have compared the nucleotide sequence of
SARS-CoV-2 RNA to that of genomes of many different viruses, of endosymbiotic proteobacterial and bacterial DNAs, and of human mitochondrial DNA. The entire 4,641,652 nt DNA sequence of
Escherichia coli K12 has been computer-matched to
SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Numerous, very similar micro-modular clusters of 3 to 13 nucleotides lengths were detected with sequence identities of 40 to >50% in specific genome segments between
SARS-CoV-2 and the investigated genomes. These clusters were part of patch-type homologies. Control sequence comparisons between 1000 randomly computer-composed sequences of 29.9 kb and with the A, C, G, T base composition of
SARS-CoV-2 genome versus the reference Wuhan
SARS-CoV-2 sequence showed similar patterns of sequence homologies. The universal A, C, G, T genetic coding mode might have succeeded in evolution due in part to its built-in capacity to select for a substantial reservoir of micro-modular domains and employ them as platforms for integrative recombination. Their role in
SARS-CoV-2 interspecies transition and the generation of variants appears likely, but their actual involvement will require detailed investigations.
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