CONSTRUCTING THE GENOME OF SARS-COV-2: AN ESSENTIAL STEP TOWARDUNDERSTANDINGTHE COVID-19 OUTBREAK THROUGH PHYLOGENETIC TREES
Abstract This paper discusses the emergence of (SARS-CoV-2) is a global concern due to its ability to cause coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In order better understand this virus and its evolutionary history, a phylogenetic tree was constructed using the Maximum Likelihood Estimate method and a Multiple Sequence Alignment of SARS-CoV-2 and other coronavirus species. This tree will be used to help elucidate the relationship between various coronaviruses and the spread of SARS-CoV-2. This paper made use of 46 SARS-CoV-2 isolates together with two other coronavirus species (Alpha & Beta) retrieved from the GenBank database (National Center for Biotechnology Information) for this exploration. Results indicated that the Maximum Likelihood Estimate approach was successful in producing a reliable phylogenetic tree that displayed the evolutionary history between SARSCoV-2 and other coronavirus species, as well as delineating the genetic diversity within SARS-CoV-2.
Keywords: SARS-CoV-2 Genome, COVID-19, Maximum-Likelihood, Bioinformatics Tools, Phylogenetic Tree Construction.