Researchers have generated a full-length clone of the novel coronavirus genome using artificial chromosomes in brewers’ yeast, according to a paper published in Nature on Monday (May 4). While other laboratories are constructing, or have constructed, clones of SARS-CoV-2 by alternative methods, a major benefit of the yeast system is its speed and stability, researchers say.
“The exciting thing about the yeast is that . . . it’s fast,” says microbiologist and coronavirus expert Susan Weiss of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine who was not a member of the research team. “The other methods are tedious and difficult.”
Reconstructing and modifying the genomes of disease-causing viruses is the starting point of many research endeavors in virology. These genetic manipulations are essential for studying a virus’s method of infection, its replication, drugs that might work against it, and potential vaccines.
During outbreaks and pandemics of novel viruses, “speed ...
