SARS-CoV-2 S protein is different than other coronaviruses at amino acid residue position 498. Molecular modeling projections suggest that this difference at position 498 would cause SARS-CoV-2 S protein to not efficiently to bind to the regional binding domain of mACE2. Glutamine 498 was replaced with tyrosine, and proline 499 was replaced with threonine from the WIV1 and SARS-CoV-1 viruses. This led to the creation of the recombinant virus SARS-CoV-2 MA. Experiments have revealed that this recombinant virus can use murine ACE2 (mACE2) for in vitro infection models, and it does not grow more efficiently than the wild type virus in human cells.