This Week in Evolution

Episode

TWiEVO 58: Not all coronaviruses ACE2 the test

August 13, 2020
Tagged as: ACE2, evolution, Rhinolophus bats, Sarbecovirus, SARS-CoV-2, spillover, viral, virology, virus, viruses, zoonosis

Simon and Heather join TWiEVO to discuss their analysis of the evolutionary history of ACE2 usage by coronaviruses in the Sarbecovirus genus.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Simon Anthony and Heather Wells

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Evolutionary history of sarbecovirus ACE2 binding (bioRxiv) 22:22
Bombali virus in bats (Nat Micro) 38:09
Herpesviruses in Puerto Rican bats (bioRxiv) 1:13:17
Adenovirus and herpesvirus in great apes (PLoS One) 1:13:24
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Episode

TWiEVO 57: SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding evolution blooms

June 24, 2020
Tagged as: deep mutational scanning, evolution, mutation, natural selection, receptor binding domain, SARS-CoV-2

Jessie, Allie and Tyler join Nels and Vincent to describe their work on deep mutational scanning of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Jesse Bloom, Allie Greaney, and Tyler Starr

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Links for this episode

Bloom Laboratory 2:21
Deep mutational scanning of SARS-CoV-2 RBD (bioRxiv) 30:53
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

Episode

TWiEVO 56: Revising the drafts of coronavirus evolution

May 20, 2020
Tagged as: animal reservoir, bat, coronavirus, COVID-19, evolution, genome mutations, homoplasy, SARS-CoV-2, viral, virology, virus, viruses

Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 evolution, including understanding recurrent mutations in the viral genome, and the potential for re-emergence of the virus from an animal reservoir.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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SARS-CoV-2 genomic diversity (Inf, Genet, Evol) 3:09
Re-emergence of SARS-CoV-2 (bioRxiv) 32:00
Tackling SARS-CoV-2 rumors (virological.org) 42:38
Letters read on TWiEVO 56 2:57, 45:50
Image credit
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:22:36

Nels – The Cell in Evolution
Vincent – Visual Science

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Episode

TWiEVO 55: Coronavirus evolution from soup to nuts

May 6, 2020
Tagged as: coronavirus, CoV, COVID-19, error correction, evolution, exonuclease, founder effect, recombination, SARS-CoV-2, selection, spike glycoprotein, viral, virology, virus

Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 evolution, with a report that the coronavirus proofreading enzyme stimulates RNA recombination, and debunking the conclusion that a change in the viral spike glycoprotein is associated with increased human to human transmission.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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CoV proofreading enzyme stimulates recombination (bioRxiv) 7:38
CoV spike mutation pipeline (bioRxiv) 41:26
Issues with CoV sequencing data (virological.org) 57:20
Bill Hanage on selection vs bottleneck (threader.app) 1:00:24
Image credit
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:07:44

Nels – In Memoriam: Gordon Lark
Vincent – John Oliver Discussion of Antibody Tests

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Episode

TWiEVO 54: Rough drafts of SARS-CoV-2 science

April 25, 2020
Tagged as: coronavirus, CoV, COVID-19, evolution, furin cleavage site, genome sequence, natural selection, SARS-CoV-2, viral, virology, virus

Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 from an evolutionary viewpoint, including function of the furin cleavage site, whether Vervet cells are an informative system, another bat isolate, and a nomenclature to assist genomic epidemiology.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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SARS-CoV-2 in Vero cells (bioRxiv) 9:49
More related SARSr virus from bat (bioRxiv) 46:16
Patient isolates in Vero cells (medRxiv) 30:06
Nomenclature for genomic epidemiology (bioRxiv) 57:32
Letters read on TWiEVO 54 1:04:00
Image credit
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:13:59

Nels – EvoEco seminars
Vincent – Coronavirus book for children

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Episode

TWiEVO 53: Virus evolution by land and by sea and by CoV, part II

April 4, 2020
Tagged as: CoV, COVID-19, evolution, genetic epidemiology, genome evolution, natural selection, SARS-CoV-2, viral, virology, virus, viruses

Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 from an evolutionary viewpoint, focusing on what the genome sequences tell us about the virus.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Clement Chow with COVID-19 (Salt Lake Trib) 11:30
Scientists exposed to coronavirus (Nature) 14:15
CoV by Britt Glaunsinger (YouTube) 25:50
Genetic epidemiology of novel coronavirus (nextstrain.org) 31:01, 42:21
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:24:55

Nels – Science Mill Explorer Zone
Vincent – COVID-19 treatment and therapy tracker

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Episode

TWiEVO 52: Virus evolution by land and by sea and by CoV

February 26, 2020
Tagged as: ACE2, bat, coronavirus, CoV, evolution, pangolin, positive selection, receptor binding domain, SARS-CoV-2, spike glycoprotein, virus, viruses, zoonosis

Nels and Vincent examine SARS-CoV-2 from an evolutionary viewpoint, examining what the spike glycoprotein sequence informs us about the origin of the virus.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Distinct CoV name needed (Lancet) 13:17
Proximal origin of SARS-COV-2 (virological) 42:51, 45:17
CoV spillovers not rare (Goats and Soda) 1:05:31
SARS-CoV-2 phylodynamics analysis (virological) 1:02:14
Bat CoV surveillance in China (PLoS Path)
Image credit
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:18:59

Nels – Alejandro Sanchez TED Talk
Vincent – WHO SARS-CoV-2 Sitrep

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Episode

TWiEVO 51: The starting point paradox

January 22, 2020
Tagged as: abiotic amino acids, abiotic synthesis, coacervate, evolution, evolve, natural selection, origin of life, ornithine, primordial amino acids, protein evolution

Nels and Vincent dive deep into evolution and consider how new proteins emerged billions of years ago, when there were no other proteins to serve as starting material.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Download TWiEVO 51 (43 MB .mp3, 71 min)
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Primordial emergence of a nucleic acid binding protein (bioRxiv) 7:48
Tawfik laboratory 11:03
Image credit
Letters read on TWiEVO 51 48:08
Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks 1:01:10

Nels – Universal principled review
Vincent – Hostile Planet by National Geographic

Listener Pick

Courtney – Nightwish Endless Forms Most Beautiful and Shudder Before The Beautiful

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Episode

TWiEVO 50: I’m dreaming of a Y chromosome

December 23, 2019
Tagged as: 3-spined stickleback fish, evolution, gene duplication, genome assembly, natural selection, sex chromosome, sex determination, Y chromosome

Nels and Vincent discuss signatures of sex chromosome evolution revealed by assembly of a young vertebrate Y chromosome from 3-spined stickleback fish.