Question

. Remembering that a primer/probe set is about 70 bp: What are two regions that would be good targets for a test that would detect ONLY SARS-CoV-2, but not SARS-CoV?

Answer 1

Although SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV belong to same group of viruses that is corona virus and primer/probe set is only specific for SARS-CoV-2, now commonly known as Covid-10. SARS-CoV interact with one human receptor i.e. ACE, where as SARS-Cov-2 is made up of two region of spike proteins known as S1 and S2, respectively.

S1 region: binding receptor (human or host)

S2 region : Fusion protein to the membrane of cell (human)

So, specific set of primer probe can detect the gene, which encode these proteins and confirm their presence in the patients.