Nels and Vincent review the use of ancient DNA to identify loci that may have been under selection during the Black Death by studying populations before, during, and after the pandemic.
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.
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 review evidence that a single amino acid change in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein has driven adaptation to humans, followed by an update on the status of variants of concern.
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.
TWiEVO 5: Looking at straw colored fruit bats through a straw
- February 20, 2016
- Tagged as: bat, Ebolavirus, filovirus, host-virus conflict, NPC1, positive selection, receptor, viral, virology, virus, virus entry, viruses
Sara and Kartik join Nels and Vincent to talk about how the filovirus receptor NPC1 regulates Ebolavirus susceptibility in bats.