tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
J Virol
. 2022 Mar 16;e0009022.
doi: 10.1128/jvi.00090-22. Online ahead of print.
SARS-CoV-2 Evolution: On the Sudden Appearance of the Omicron Variant
Ben Berkhout[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Elena Herrera-Carrillo[SUP] 1 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
The Omicron variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spreads rapidly and harbors many mutations in the spike protein, but the origin of this virus variant remains unclear. We address the role of unusual virus evolution mechanisms such as hypermutation, out-of-frame reading, and recombination. Rather, regular Darwinian evolution, that is, the repeated selection of beneficial spike mutations, seems to have led to the appearance of the grossly altered spike protein of the Omicron variant.
Keywords: Omicron; SARS-CoV-2; evolution.
. 2022 Mar 16;e0009022.
doi: 10.1128/jvi.00090-22. Online ahead of print.
SARS-CoV-2 Evolution: On the Sudden Appearance of the Omicron Variant
Ben Berkhout[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Elena Herrera-Carrillo[SUP] 1 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 35293771
- DOI: 10.1128/jvi.00090-22
Abstract
The Omicron variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spreads rapidly and harbors many mutations in the spike protein, but the origin of this virus variant remains unclear. We address the role of unusual virus evolution mechanisms such as hypermutation, out-of-frame reading, and recombination. Rather, regular Darwinian evolution, that is, the repeated selection of beneficial spike mutations, seems to have led to the appearance of the grossly altered spike protein of the Omicron variant.
Keywords: Omicron; SARS-CoV-2; evolution.