Posted:
8 one 2022 15:57 GMT
The rapid accumulation of mutations that characterize this new variant has raised questions about whether it can be generated in a mammalian host.
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences argue that the omicron variant could be the result of the development of the Corona virus in mice, where it would have developed a large number of mutations, as they concluded in a study published in the journal. Journal of Genetics and Genomics At the end of December.
Chinese scientists analyzed 45 genetic mutations The new variant obtained it from the moment it deviated from the B.1.1 strain and found that positive selection was stronger in the barbed protein sequence than any SARS-CoV-2 variant that has evolved in humans.
The differences observed at the molecular level led researchers to believe that the virus had evolved in mice cells before being transmitted to humans in the omicron form.
“Our results indicate that Omicron’s ancestor jumped from humans to miceThe authors of the recent study concluded that it rapidly accumulated the mutations that infected that host, and then jumped back to humans, indicating an interspecies evolutionary pathway for the oomicron outbreak.”
The fact that the omicron variant is transmitted to rats and mice, animals that were not susceptible to other strains of the virus, It’s confirmed Previously by Russian researchers, they noticed that young animals became ill after being infected.
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