Discover 3 variants of nCoV in the world

A Cambridge University team discovered three distinct variants of nCoV but they are closely related.

Dr. Peter Forster, a geneticist at Cambridge University and colleagues reconstructed the original evolutionary pathways of nCoV as it spread from the epidemic center in Wuhan, China, to Europe and North America. By sequencing 160 complete virus genomes taken from patients, Forster and his colleagues found that most of the closest variant to the bat corona virus was found in patients in the US and Australia, not Wuhan. .

"We use mathematical network algorithms to look at the evolutionary relationship between biological entities to visualize hundreds of trees evolving at the same time in a graph. This technique is mainly used to map events. migration of prehistoric populations via DNA. We think this is the first time the technique has been applied to trace the pathway of infection of a corona virus like nCoV, "Forster said.

The researchers identified three variants of nCoV through the algorithm. Photo: RFI.

Forster and colleagues suggest that nCoV is often mutated to overcome the immune response in different populations. They use data from patient samples around the world from December 24, 2019 to March 4, 2020. According to research results published on March 30 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the team identified three variants of nCoV, temporarily called A, B and C.

The original type A variant is most closely related to the corona virus in bats and exists in Wuhan but is not common. Instead, large amounts of type A viruses have been found in patients from the US and Australia.

The B-type variant is the main type in Wuhan and is common among patients from East Asia, however, and does not extend beyond this region. According to the researchers, the type C variant is the main one in Europe, commonly seen in patients in France, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It is not present in the sample in mainland China but can be found in patients from Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea.

The scientists continually updated their analysis by looking at more than 1,000 new cases by the end of March. Initial results indicate the most common type C variant in Europe, but current data shows that Type B is spreading stronger. According to Forster, the type A variant transformed into type B in China through two mutations, but type C "descendants" of B, developed outside the country. The team said their method could be applied to sequencing the nCoV genome to help predict future global disease hotspots.