O-59 - Computational analysis predicts the SARS-CoV-2 RBD-ACE2 interaction is not ideal - non-optimal
Computational structural analyses predict that the SARS-CoV-2 RBD-human-ACE2 interaction is ‘not ideal’ and that its RBD sequence differs from the residues shown in SARS-CoV to be optimal for receptor binding, despite the virus binding hACE2 with high affinity in practice.
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Why this is evidence
A computationally non-optimal yet high-affinity RBD is what natural selection yields, not what a designer optimising hACE2 binding would build — favouring the natural members (H-41/H-42) over H-43, especially its rational-design/reverse-genetics flavour.