Oxford: 2019 novel coronavirus is undergoing active recombination

[LiberalArkie]

Oxford University Press
Clinical Infectious Diseases

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
2019 novel coronavirus is undergoing active recombination

https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa219/5781085


I don't know what this means.. Anyone?

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Mutating?

[Claritie Pixie]

2. Correction - not mutating, different stains combining.

Last edited Mon Mar 9, 2020, 08:17 PM - Edit history (2)

I initially said it was mutating but this is a bit different. 2 strains are sharing information. Mutations occur with recombining and could:

Combine into a less or more virulent strain
Adapt to survive better in the human immune system
Make current diagnostic tests less precise
Make a vaccine more difficult to formulate

Neither good nor bad, after I initially said it was bad. Don't want to assume since we don't know yet.

[yardwork]

10. It might be good. See downthread.

Often viruses mutate into less virulent forms. It's better for the virus if it's host doesn't die. A mildly ill individual going about their usual business, wandering around for weeks coming into contact with lots and lots of people, gives the virus lots of opportunities to infect other hosts.

This is why the common cold is so successful.

[Wednesdays]

12. It's not always a bad thing

For example, the 1918 flu eventually mutated until it became milder and less lethal.

But yeah, the coronavirus could also mutate into something even harder to combat.

[kurtcagle]

15. Mutations occur in response to ecosystem

The Spanish flu was too virulent - it tended to kill off its hosts faster than it could replicate. Covid-19 has a long incubation time and a high contagion rate. It likely will become less virulent over time, but it may take longer than SF will

[Mike 03]

4. There was an article in Nature asserting there are actually two strains

of this virus (L-type and S-type). And another DUer posted a second article or Tweet from a virologist or other expert saying one strain was more virulent than the other. This is really interesting if true.

[2naSalit]

5. That sucks, though not unexpected. ...nt

[Mike 03]

6. Here's an article on the two strains.

Others disagree with this, but it might be related to your post. I couldn't find the Nature article.

Chinese scientists identify two strains of the coronavirus, indicating it’s already mutated at least once

The more aggressive type of virus was found to be prevalent in the early stages of the outbreak in Wuhan — the Chinese city where COVID-19 was first detected late last year.
But the frequency of this type of virus has since decreased from early January, the scientists said.
Researchers cautioned that data examined in the study was still “very limited.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/04/coronavirus-chinese-scientists-identify-two-types-covid-19.html

My question is, could the more virulent strain be the one wreaking havoc in Italy, where the fatality rate seems to be closer to 5%?

[yardwork]

7. That suggests that the virus mutated into a less virulent strain.

[Mike 03]

8. That's right. That's a positive development if it pans out.

But there's still the matter of the high fatality rate in Italy.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213065431

It's even higher than the WHO's predictive 3.4 FR.

I'm wondering if there are different strains in circulation.

[wishstar]

9. probably means developing an effective vaccine will be more challenging

just as each year the flu vaccine has to be recalibrated

[jpak]

11. It's not mutating - it's sharing genetic information (recombination) and that may be good or bad

If you can understand this - from the PDF...

<snip>

This report provides the first evidence for genetic recombination—a new way of evolution
besides mutation in 2019-nCoV. The existing of genetic recombination has the following
implications: two different 2019-nCoV strains (here, hap_048 and hap_050) should have coinfected the same cell; a 2019-nCoV strain might acquire new traits like virulence and drug
susceptibility directly from other strains [12, 13]; the adaptability of 2019-nCoV to human
immune system might be significantly strengthened through genetic recombination; the accuracy
of diagnosis based on serologic and molecular biology assays might be compromised [14]; and
the transmission tracking based on phylogenetics tree could be misleading since the topology of
mutation route is a network rather than a tree.

<more>

[Claritie Pixie]

14. Thank you for this.

[GulfCoast66]

13. Expected. Viruses continually change. In The Great Influenza, a fantastic book on the 1918 flu

It is discussed. It eventually lost potency, but only after getting stronger and sweeping thru the entire population.

If I remember correctly there is evidence that different regions were hit by strains of different potency due to greatly varying death rates.

It’s been a decade or so since I read it but it is still in my library. Looks like I know my next book.