COVID-19 MUTATIONS MAY NOT MAKE IT MORE INFECTIOUS: GENOME STUDY

London, May 26: None of the mutations documented in the Covid-19 appear to make it more infectious, according to a study of virus genomes from 15,000 Covid-19 patients from 75 countries, published in the journal Infection, Genetics and Evolution.

“As a growing number of mutations have been documented, scientists are rapidly trying to find out if any of them could make the virus more infectious or deadly, as it’s vital to understand such changes as early as possible,” said Professor Francois Balloux from University College London (UCL) in the UK. “We employed a novel technique to determine whether viruses with the new mutation are actually transmitted at a higher rate, and found that none of the candidate mutations appear to be benefiting the virus,” said Balloux, lead author of the yet-tobe peer-reviewed study published as a pre-print on bioRxiv.

Covid-19es, like other RNA viruses, can develop mutations in three different ways: By mistake from copying errors during viral replication, through interactions with other viruses infecting the same cell, or they can be induced by RNA modification systems which are part of host immunity, the researchers explained.

THE FINDINGS build on a study published in the journal Infection, Genetics and Evolution earlier this month which characterised patterns of diversity emerging in the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19.