Did Coronavirus Appear 20,000 Years Ago? Here’s What Scientists Say

New Delhi: This comes as an interesting bit of news. According to recent research, coronavirus made its appearance 20,000 years ago in east Asia and it helped human genes to evolve. This study was published in Current Biology on Thursday has shared the findings. The team of ten international scientists came from the University of Adelaide, University of Arizona Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Queensland University of Technology, University of California, News18 reported.

Scientists found that the ancient coronavirus was limited to the population of East Asia  – now China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan.

The study says that as the ancient east Asian population fought off the coronavirus, their genome underwent changes that possibly led to their body developing the ability to fight off severe diseases from such viruses.

According to them, in the millions of years of human evolution, positive natural selection has frequently targeted proteins that physically interact with viruses.

This selection has led to the fixation of gene variants encoding virus-interacting proteins (VIPs) at three times the rate observed for other types of genes.

Through their computational analyses of the genomes of more than 2,500 people from 26 populations around the world, the study found signatures of adaptation in 42 different human genes that encode VIPs.

Scientists believe that this information will help to better predict the pandemics of the future. The study also mentioned that the adaptation to ancient viral epidemics in specific human populations does not imply that there is a difference in genetic susceptibility between different human populations. The current pandemic shows that there are various factors that contribute to the spread of the virus.

When did the coronavirus pandemic strike before?

• In 2012, parts of the world faced MERS-CoV or Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, leaving 858 people dead.
• In 2002 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) left 800 people dead.
• In 1918, the world faced the deadly Spanish Flu that spread in parts of Europe, and the United States.
• In 3000 BC, Europe faced the deadly Bubonic plague.