virus evolution, microbiology

BA.2.75 is spreading rampantly in India and has so far reached at least 20 other countries, but it doesn’t seem to be outcompeting other Omicron SARS-CoV-2 subvariants.

Here’s what we know so far about a new virus detected in eastern China.

Several mechanisms contribute to the increased transmissibility of this SARS-CoV-2 variant.

The presence and spread of new, more-infectious and immune-evading variants show that the coronavirus is not done mutating.

The work reveals that the pandemic flu was likely the direct predecessor of the seasonal H1N1 flu that circulated for decades.

Dozens of researchers, including myself, worked for years to uncover that swine flu had leapt to humans from a pig in Mexico in 2009. We learned a lot about influenza evolution, pig farming, and outbreak risk along the way.

The pathogen known as swine flu evolved in pigs in Mexico following imports of the livestock from the US and Europe.

Seven years of surveillance and research revealed the complex history of the H1N1 virus that leapt from pigs to humans and sparked the global swine flu outbreak.

Preliminary studies suggest that existing vaccines falter in preventing symptomatic infections caused by the new coronavirus variant, but protection against severe disease is still high.

Preliminary data suggest that the newly dubbed Omicron variant may be more infectious than previous versions of the virus, but it will take time to obtain the reliable data needed to answer pressing questions about its biology.

Dozens of researchers, including myself, worked for years to uncover that swine flu had leapt to humans from a pig in Mexico in 2009. We learned a lot about influenza evolution, pig farming, and outbreak risk along the way.

While some experts speculate the variant could be partially responsible for India’s current surge in SARS-CoV-2 infections, information about the effects of its mutations is only beginning to emerge.

In a trio of studies, researchers follow up on a 40-year-old finding that certain bacteriophages replace adenine with so-called diaminopurine, perhaps to avoid host degradation.

Genetic analyses suggest that the virus came from a patient who survived the 2013–2016 West African outbreak.

Sam Wilson discusses a user-friendly set of resources that he and his collaborators developed to aid labs pivoting to study COVID-19.

In addition to being more transmissible, the variant now dominant in the UK may be about 30 percent more deadly than previous strains, but much uncertainty remains.

The so-called 614G mutation in the viral spike protein does not appear to cause more severe cases of COVID-19, but multiple studies indicate that it could be more contagious.

A handful of factors tip the scales in making a virus more likely to trigger a disruptive global outbreak. Right now, scientists tend to rank influenza, coronaviruses, and Nipah virus as the biggest threats.

Using epidemiological and laboratory data, scientists have mapped out a sequence of mutations through which the attenuated oral polio vaccine reverts to a virulent virus.