Study reveals mutations of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, may not be a random process, but instead, humans are mutating it as part of a defense mechanism to degrade the virus, but natural selection of the virus enables it to bounce back. The findings could help in the design of vaccines against the virus.
The team looked at over 15,000 virus genomes from all of the sequencing efforts around the world and identified over 6000 mutations. They looked at how much each of the four letters that make up the virus’ genetic code (A, C, U and G) were mutating and discovered that the virus had a very high rate of mutations generating U residues.
Read more at: https://neurosciencenews.com/viral-evolution-covid19-16698/