Phylogenetic study of 2019-nCoV by using alignment-free method Yang Gao*1, Tao Li*2, and Liaofu Luo‡3,4 1 Baotou National Rare Earth Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone, Baotou, China 2 College of Life Sciences, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University , Hohhot, China. 3Laboratory of Theoretical Biophysics, School of Physical Science and Technology, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China 4 School of Life Science and Technology, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, China *These authors contributed equally to this work. ‡Corresponding author. E-mail:
[email protected] (LL) Abstract The origin and early spread of 2019-nCoV is studied by phylogenetic analysis using IC-PIC alignment-free method based on DNA/RNA sequence information correlation (IC) and partial information correlation (PIC). The topology of phylogenetic tree of Betacoronavirus is remarkably consistent with biologist’s systematics, classifies 2019-nCoV as Sarbecovirus of Betacoronavirus and supports the assumption that these novel viruses are of bat origin with pangolin as one of the possible intermediate hosts. The novel virus branch of phylogenetic tree shows location-virus linkage. The placement of root of the early 2019-nCoV tree is studied carefully in Neighbor Joining consensus algorithm by introducing different out-groups (Bat-related coronaviruses, Pangolin coronaviruses and HIV viruses etc.) and comparing with UPGMA consensus trees. Several oldest branches (lineages) of the 2019-nCoV tree are deduced that means the COVID-19 may begin to spread in several regions in the world before its outbreak in Wuhan. Introduction Coronaviruses are single-stranded positive-sense enveloped RNA viruses that are distributed broadly among humans, other mammals, and birds and that cause respiratory, enteric, hepatic, and neurologic diseases [1,2].