Coronavirus’s Genetics Reveal Its Global Travels

Random mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen’s genome help researchers track the spread and transmission of COVID-19, the disease it causes.

Ashley Yeager

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ABOVE: The viral genomes of SARS-CoV-2 reveal its path around the globe. The circles mark the size of outbreaks in different regions and the colored lines represent which strain clusters spread to those regions. The map includes data collected up to February 15. NEXTSTRAIN.ORG, Leaflet, © Mapbox, © OpenStreetMap

Several years ago, Richard Neher, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, and his colleagues wanted to monitor changes to the flu’s genetic makeup to see if the data would help scientists build more-effective flu vaccines. They developed an online interface that integrated the latest viral sequencing data, analyzed it, and published the results in a publicly available interactive web browser.

“Then we thought, why just flu, why not other viruses?” Neher says. The team built a similar platform to chart the transmission of MERS and Ebola and called the site NextStrain.org. Now, they’ve adapted it to keep ...

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Meet the Author

Ashley Yeager
Ashley started at The Scientist in 2018. Before joining the staff, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, a writer at the Simons Foundation, and a web producer at Science News, among other positions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT. Ashley edits the Scientist to Watch and Profile sections of the magazine and writes news, features, and other stories for both online and print.
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