{"doi":"10.1371/journal.ppat.1012204","title":"Structural basis for raccoon dog receptor recognition by SARS-CoV-2","abstract":"Since the COVID-19 outbreak, raccoon dogs have been suggested as a potential intermediary in transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to humans. To understand their role in the COVID-19 pandemic and the species barrier for SARS-CoV-2 transmission to humans, we analyzed how their ACE2 protein interacts with SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Biochemical data showed that raccoon dog ACE2 is an effective receptor for SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, though not as effective as human ACE2. Structural comparisons highlighted differences in the virus-binding residues of raccoon dog ACE2 compared to human ACE2 (L24Q, Y34H, E38D, T82M, R353K), explaining their varied effectiveness as receptors for SARS-CoV-2. These variations contribute to the species barrier that exists between raccoon dogs and humans regarding SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Identifying these barriers can help assess the susceptibility of other mammals to SARS-CoV-2. Our research underscores the potential of raccoon dogs as SARS-CoV-2 carriers and identifies molecular barriers that affect the virus's ability to jump between species.","journal":"PLoS Pathogens","year":2024,"id":440269,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":9,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9544,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":103757,"name":"Ke Shi","orcid":"0000-0003-4175-3714","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1060861,"name":"Alise Mendoza","orcid":"0000-0003-2966-8031","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1060860,"name":"Fan Bu","orcid":"0000-0002-6965-3072","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":833017,"name":"Wei Zhang","orcid":"0000-0003-3938-1245","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":103759,"name":"Hideki Aihara","orcid":"0000-0001-7508-6230","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":103706,"name":"Fang Li","orcid":"0000-0002-1958-366X","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1084815,"name":"Fu‐Chun Hsueh","orcid":"0000-0002-4319-6600","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":37,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:00:57.233748Z","pmid":"38709834","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}