Fig. 5

Characterization of Syrian hamster ACE2 receptor and other genes involved in SARS-COV-2 infection. A Interaction model between human ACE2 (cyan) and SARS-CoV spike RBD (green) (upper left panel, Protein Data Bank (PDB) accession number: 6m0j). The key binding site on ACE2 is marked in blue (upper right panel). The 3D structures of ACE2 from hamster, mouse and rat were predicted using GalaxyTBM and compared with human ACE2 by 3D-Match, and key binding site on ACE2 is marked in blue (human) or cyan (lower panels). The white arrows show potential key loop sites with different structures. B HEK-293 T cells stably expressing ACE2 from human, Syrian hamster, rat and mouse were infected with SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus and luciferase activities were measured using the Luciferase Assay System. C The interaction of 65 reported drugable genes were analyzed with String Software and KEGG pathway enrichment is presented (upper panel). The top three KEGG pathway-related genes in human, mice or hamster were aligned with MegAlign. The percentage of hamster-derived genes with higher, lower or no significant difference (Ns) homology to human are marked green, blue or yellow respectively. D Syrian hamster transformed kidney epithelial cells (HaK) were infected with SARS-CoV2, then viral protein was detected using SARS-CoV2 polyclonal antibody by immunofluorescence assay. E Syrian hamster cells (HaK) were infected with SARS-CoV2 at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 0.2. One hour later, medium was refreshed and virus genomes in cell supernatant at 24 or 72 h were detected by quantitative real-time RT-PCR. F HaK cells were infected with SARS-CoV2 (as forE) and cell supernatant was harvested at 72 h post-infection, virus titre was determined using the Vero cell line