On the fifth anniversary of TWiEVO, Nels and Vincent invite 11 evolutionary biologists to describe exciting future directions for the field and their laboratory in the next five years.
TWiEVO 59: The hypothesis giving tree
- August 28, 2020
- Tagged as: amoeba, COVID-19, evolution, giant virus, mutation, natural selection, ORFan, pandemic, SARS-CoV-2
Nels and Vincent answer listener questions and discuss a newly discovered virus of amoeba with a nearly complete ORFan genome: none of the proteins encoded in the viral genome look like any other proteins.
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.
Jessie, Allie and Tyler join Nels and Vincent to describe their work on deep mutational scanning of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
