Category: Evolution
BA.2.75.2 “exhibits more extreme antibody escape than any variant we’ve seen so far”
Two preprints have been published over the last few days that give more details about the Omicron BA.2.75.2 sublineage. More...
BA.2.75 is rapidly picking up multiple beneficial spike mutations
“BA.2.75* could become dominant globally by the end of October“.
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XAY Delta-Omicron recombinant under observation
A new SARS-CoV-2 recombinant lineage from South Africa has been highlighted by Tulio de Oliveira, Director of the Centre for Epidemic Response & Innovation in South Africa today. More...
SARS-CoV-2 working out to become even fitter
If you had any doubt about just how dedicated SARS-CoV-2 is to its goal of becoming ever fitter, check out the incredible cryo-electron tomography shots and accompanying diagrams in this new Science article. More...
Preprint: Mink can be infected by Omicron and efficiently transmit the virus to other mink
To study whether mink can transmit Omicron, we placed 2 uninfected indirect contact mink in separate cages 10–20 cm from the cages of the infected mink and followed their progress for 10 days. More...
Preprint: Monkeypox has far more mutations than expected
“Researchers found the current Monkeypox strain diverges from the original strain by 50 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and several mutations made the virus more transmissible.” More...
Lancet: Where is the next SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern?
“Curing COVID-19 infections in immunocompromised individuals is of crucial importance.”… More...
Preprint: Monkeypox genetic divergence and first signs of microevolution
“We have already detected the first signs of microevolution within the outbreak cluster, namely the emergence of 7 SNPs, leading to 3 descendant branches.” More...
Research: The changing epidemiology of human monkeypox
“Using a structured format, we describe the greater than 10-fold increase in confirmed, probable, and/or possible monkeypox, cases over the past 5 decades, from 48 cases in the 1970s to 520 cases in the 1990s. More...
Preprint: Enhanced Fusogenicity of BA.4, BA.5 and BA.2.12.1
“We found that the new Omicron subvariants BA.4/5 and BA.2.12.1 were more resistant to neutralization by mRNA-vaccinated and boosted health care worker sera and Omicron-BA.1-wave patient sera than were the BA.1 and BA.2 variants.” More...