TRACKING THE SARS-COV2 EVOLUTION
Dr.s Yavuz Oktay and Gökhan Karakülah, research group leaders at IBG, and an IBG student Doğa Eskier have just published their in-silico analysis on the effects of SARS-Cov2 mutations on the viral properties and disease characteristics at Biorxiv.
The researchers collaborated with Dr. Aslı Suner from Ege University.
Viral genome sequences have been accumulating all around the world; and it has been a great resource for the researchers to find important answers to some fundemantal questions about the biology of the virus.
IBG scientists, specifically, focused on the effects of the mutations in the viral RNA dependent RNA polymerase gene (RdRp) on the mutation rate and viral spread.
Their mutation profiling analysis showed the effect of some of the identified RdRp mutations on the overall mutation rate, therefore the evolution, of the virus.
The full text article is openly accessible for the exploration of more of their interesting findings: RdRp mutations are associated with SARS-CoV-2 genome evolution