How does coronavirus evolve? – Scientist develop a new method to understand the mechanism
Researchers have developed a new technique to analyze the genetic code of the SARS-CoV2 – published in the journal of Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, an advance that explains how the virus develops and also helps identify the new disease cluster.
Evaluating global data on the available genome sequences of the coronavirus can help accelerate the understanding of this virus, as per researchers, including those from the University of York, United Kingdom.
A new system to identify differences amongst the thousands of genetic sequences of the COVID-19 coronavirus has been developed by the scientists. Initially, the human genome was evaluated using this platform.
To comprehend how modifications in the virus could affect its behavior and effect, the scientists examined the first 181 published genome sequences from the COVID-19 outbreak.
S S Vasan, the corresponding author of the study, The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) (Australian federal government agency) said, “This RNA virus is anticipated to evolve into a variety of distinctive clusters that share mutations, which is what we have confirmed as well as visualized”.
Understanding these mutations may not affect the development as well as evaluation of COVID-19 treatments, diagnostics, and vaccines,
according to the researchers. Nonetheless, they said as preclinical and clinical research studies progress it is necessary to monitor this information as well.Larry Marshall, the co-author of the study and the Chief Executive of CSIRO said, “The more we know about this virus, the better armed we’ll be to fight it.”
Marshall said, “This genome sequence evaluation has helped to identify which strains of the virus are suitable for vaccines testing which is underway at the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness, Geelong.”
“As the virus evolves, this genetic blueprint becomes progressively vital given that it holds guidelines regarding the behavior of the virus and what type of illness it can cause,” according to Denis Bauer, another co-author of the study from CSIRO.
Bauer, Honorary Associate Professor, Macquarie University, Australia, said: “Currently there is a substantial quantity of individual virus sequence around the world.”
Bauer stated, “Examining the evolutionary distance between these data factors and visualizing it helps scientists find out the different strains of the coronavirus, how they continue to evolve and their origin.”
Scientists state that the evolving genetic mutations of the virus are highlighted with this new data visualization system as genetic sequences tend to change and adapt to new environments.
Bauer said, “The more informed we are about the genetic differences and their most likely repercussions on the development of the disease, the better we can deal with the virus with diagnostics and therapies”.
Author: Sruthi S
