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TWiV 619: Recombination led to emergence of SARS-CoV-2

27 May 2020 by Vincent Racaniello

Raul Rabadan joins TWiV to explain the use of computational biology to demonstrate how recombination and mutation led to emergence of SARS-CoV-2.

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Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: bat CoV, computational biology, coronavirus, CoV, COVID-19, mutation, pandemic, recombination, SARS-CoV-2, spillover, viral, virology, virus, viruses, zoonosis

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Chris says

    28 May 2020 at 7:22 am

    Research done by Raul and his team is great and I hope we will get some definite answers. Great podcast! After listening to this I am wondering how is it possible that the mutation would happen in an “unfavorable” direction (in a bat) and still last? As would be the case with ACE2 RBD mutating in bats.

    Another question: why artificial recombination is a ruled out hypothesis? Just the existence of the mechanism in nature doesn’t rule it out? I understand that this hypothesis carries some emotional burden and also probably is last on the list after all the possible recombination paths are not confirmed, but still isn’t it a duty of a scientist to consider all possible paths, isn’t it? My understanding from listening to the podcast is that there is a definite gap in our knowledge since the RBD has recombined “separate” to the rest of the virus.

  2. Skyler K Anderson says

    30 May 2020 at 8:30 pm

    artificial recombination is ruled out because to state otherwise would be detrimental to future grant/employment opportunities. pfft obviosly.

  3. Skyler K Anderson says

    30 May 2020 at 9:26 pm

    You idiots have had decades to protect us from this. So either, it escaped from the Wuhan lab, or the billions pump into “gain-of-function” research has been absolutely worthless. Which is it?

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by Vincent Racaniello

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