Nels and Vincent discuss an analysis of the drivers of evolution of SARS-CoV-2 during chronic infections, indicating that a tradeoff exists between antibody evasion and fitness.
Nels and Vincent provide an update on cases of monkeypox, and summarize a biochemical view of three changes in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that may balance positive and negative selection.
TWiEVO 73: With a little help from your hosts
- December 28, 2021
- Tagged as: coronavirus, COVID-19, evolution, fitness, natural selection, Omicron, pandemic, RNA insertion, SARS-CoV-2
Nels and Vincent review three aspects of SARS-CoV-2: phylogenetics of Omicron, a two-step fitness selection for SARS-CoV-2 variants, and putative RNA insertions from host genomes.
Nels and Vincent discuss evolutionary evidence for an epidemic of coronavirus infection over 20,000 years ago in East Asia, and reconstruction of the membrane differences between bacteria and Archaea reveals unexpected differences in permeability.
Nels and Vincent explain a method to calculate the mutation rate of SARS-CoV-2, and the role of a single amino acid change in spike in enhancing fitness of the delta variant and enabling it to out-compete the alpha variant.
TWiEVO 70: On Life’s Edge with Carl Zimmer
- August 3, 2021
- Tagged as: Carl Zimmer, COVID-19, evolution, natural selection, pandemic, science communication, virus
Carl Zimmer joins Nels to talk about science writing, science communication, viruses, and his new book, On Life’s Edge.
TWiEVO 69: Swimming in SARS-CoV-2 sequences
- June 30, 2021
- Tagged as: coronavirus, COVID-19, evolution, genome sequence, Rhinolophus bats, SARS-CoV-2, Sequence Read Archive, viral, virology, virus, viruses, zoonosis
Nels and Vincent discuss the identification of novel bat coronaviruses that shed light on the evolution of SARS-CoV-2, dating the first cases of COVID-19 to mid-November 2019, and recovery of deleted genome sequences from early in the Wuhan outbreak.
Nels and Vincent explain a new method for calculating the most recent common ancestor of SARS-CoV-2, which concludes that the ancestral virus was circulating in October/November 2019, before its first detection in China.
Nels and Vincent review evidence for recombinant SARS-CoV-2 genomes arising in the B.1.1.7 lineage within the United Kingdom.
TWiEVO 66: SARS-2-mouse
- March 25, 2021
- Tagged as: B1.351, coronavirus, COVID-19, evolution, mouse, natural selection, P.1, pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, variants of concern, virus host range
Nels and Vincent review a preprint demonstrating that changes in the genomes of the SARS-CoV-2 variants B1.351 and P.1 allow the viruses to reproduce in mouse cells in culture and in laboratory mice.