Thread by @BillyBostickson

1. From @humblesci MERS contamination summary:

"While reverse genetics system used by WIV for the NIH funded EHA project utilized a MERS-CoV backbone & swapped in HKU4r-CoV components

WIV seems to have been simultaneously using a HKU4r-CoV backbone for independent research"

https://twitter.com/BillyBostickson/status/1456942384600604679

2. WIV Spike Gene Swaps?

"Potentially the WIV may have been attempting to swap in the MERS-CoV spike gene using targeted RNA recombination (Masters and Rottier, 2005) or perhaps experimenting with a pseudotyped MERS-CoV spike vector"

3. That is a significant claim

"the WIV appears to have been simultaneously using a HKU4r-CoV backbone for independent research"

So while doing EHA NIH funded work, at the same time they were "experimenting" with the reverse!

4. if we apply the same pattern of experimenting with a reverse method to other covs explored under EHA NIH projects or from WIV viral sequences, what do we get?
RaTG13 or other unknown backbone virus plus RBD from GX/GD pangolin covs or BANAL-20-52, BANAL-20-103,BANAL-20-236?

5. The exact combination remains to be determined

The missing viral sequence "WIV15" as discovered by @franciscodeasis ?

https://twitter.com/BillyBostickson/status/1346451917786910720

The controversial FCS may have been inserted by standard methods or entered SARS-COV-2 via a recombination in cell culture, that also remains to be determined.

Unroll WIV reverse methods @threadreaderapp