Note: We’re sharing verbatim snippets from Kai Kupferschmidt’s article. Even beyond the SARS-Co-V-2 context, the discussion of viral evolution and variant origins is valuable as animal health pros work to prevent other diseases, such as ASF, PRRS and FMD.
The evolution of virulence has proven to be quicksand for evolutionary biologists. It’s not a simple thing.” – Edward Holmes
The most tumultuous period in SARS-CoV-2’s evolution may still be ahead of us, says Aris Katzourakis, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oxford. There’s now enough immunity in the human population to ratchet up an evolutionary competition, pressuring the virus to adapt further. At the same time, much of the world is still overwhelmed with infections, giving the virus plenty of chances to replicate and throw up new mutations.
Source: Science, August 9, 2021. Link. Making sense of the endless stream of mutations is complicated. Each is just a tiny tweak in the instructions for how to make proteins. Which mutations end up spreading depends on how the viruses carrying those tweaked proteins fare in the real world.
The most eye-popping change in SARS-CoV-2 so far has been its improved ability to spread between humans.”
INSIGHTS: We shared the article with Dr Jen the Vet for perspective knowing of her involvements with Covid-19 education.
In this article, there are a number of “firsts” referenced: first time scientists can observe a viral evolution, first time a coronavirus mutates so quickly in such a short time period, and so on. What the author fails to acknowledge is that these “firsts” are not occurring independent of each other. Perhaps any of the earlier four coronaviruses that emerged since 1960 into the human population underwent the exact same evolution at a similar rate? or even faster? Technology in the 1960’s did not allow for such close molecular observation. While the article is interesting, readers would do well to keep the salt shaker nearby and remember the incredible advancements in molecular biology since 2010 when the most recent coronavirus emerged…at least the most recent since this last one.” – Jenifer Chatfield, DVM, Dipl. ACZM, Dipl. ACVPM