Gene

Coronavirus

Molecular epidemiology

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak

Phylogeography

Engineering

Biology

Betacoronavirus

Virology

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)

Outbreak

Environmental health

Computational biology

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Evolutionary biology

Genetics

Phylogenetic tree

Genotype

Clade

Molecular clock

Population

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Phylogenetics

Coronavirus Infections

Medicine

Transmission (telecommunications)

Pandemic

Zoology

Disease

Epizootic

Electrical engineering

Pathology

Pathogens and Global Health

The global spread of the 2019-nCoV is continuing and is fast moving, as indicated by the WHO raising the risk assessment to high. In this article, we provide a preliminary phylodynamic and phylogeographic analysis of this new virus. A Maximum Clade Credibility tree has been built using the 29 available whole genome sequences of 2019-nCoV and two whole genome sequences that are highly similar sequences from Bat SARS-like Coronavirus available in GeneBank. We are able to clarify the mechanism of transmission among the countries which have provided the 2019-nCoV sequence isolates from their patients. The Bayesian phylogeographic reconstruction shows that the 2019–2020 nCoV most probably originated from the Bat SARS-like Coronavirus circulating in the Rhinolophus bat family. In agreement with epidemiological observations, the most likely geographic origin of the new outbreak was the city of Wuhan, China, where 2019-nCoV time of the most recent common ancestor emerged, according to molecular clock analysis, around November 25th, 2019. These results, together with previously recorded epidemics, suggest a recurring pattern of periodical epizootic outbreaks due to Betacoronavirus. Moreover, our study describes the same population genetic dynamic underlying the SARS 2003 epidemic, and suggests the urgent need for the development of effective molecular surveillance strategies of Betacoronavirus among animals and Rhinolophus of the bat family.

The global spread of 2019-nCoV: a molecular evolutionary analysis