# The Sarbecovirus origin of SARS-CoV-2’s furin cleavage site

**URL:** <https://virological.org/t/the-sarbecovirus-origin-of-sars-cov-2-s-furin-cleavage-site/536>\
**Category:** nCoV-2019 Evolutionary History\
**Created:** [August 8, 2020, 2:53pm UTC](https://virological.org/t/the-sarbecovirus-origin-of-sars-cov-2-s-furin-cleavage-site/536 "2020-08-08T14:53:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![Alina](https://virological.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@Alina](https://virological.org/u/Alina)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2020, 9:05pm UTC](https://virological.org/t/the-sarbecovirus-origin-of-sars-cov-2-s-furin-cleavage-site/536/5 "2020-08-09T21:05:26Z")

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Hi Spyros,

Just to help me understand, do you mean that,

1. RmYN02 co-existed in the same bat as a SARS2 precursor and was used for template switching into only the SARS-CoV-2 lineage, and none of the other SARS2-related CoVs including the pangolin CoV with a near identical RBM?

2. The RmYN02 clade never had a “natural insertion” to begin with, but always had the CASYNSPAAR sequence? (As opposed to the CASYXXXXNSR or CASYXXXXXXR that other SARS-related CoVs have.)

Would you be concerned if the RmYN02 Orf1b and Spike contigs were separate; not from the same virus?

Alina

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