Reports discovery and full-genome sequencing of bat coronavirus RaTG13 (96.2% genome identity to SARS-CoV-2, the closest known relative at time of publication), sampled from a Rhinolophus affinis bat in a Yunnan mine in 2013; establishes RaTG13 as the primary comparator genome against which SARS-CoV-2’s novel features (furin cleavage site, RBD, codon usage) are judged unique or not. relevance_note: the reference “closest natural relative” genome that most furin-cleavage-site and codon-usage engineering-signal comparisons are built against.