SARS-CoV-2 Evolution: On the Sudden Appearance of the Omicron Variant

The Omicron variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spreads rapidly and harbors many mutations in the spike protein, but the origin of this virus variant remains unclear. We address the role of unusual virus evolution mechanisms such as hypermutation, out-of-frame rea...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Berkhout, Ben, Herrera-Carrillo, Elena
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Society for Microbiology 2022
Materias:
Commentary
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9006888/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35293771
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jvi.00090-22
Descripción
Sumario:The Omicron variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spreads rapidly and harbors many mutations in the spike protein, but the origin of this virus variant remains unclear. We address the role of unusual virus evolution mechanisms such as hypermutation, out-of-frame reading, and recombination. Rather, regular Darwinian evolution, that is, the repeated selection of beneficial spike mutations, seems to have led to the appearance of the grossly altered spike protein of the Omicron variant.

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