Is the SARS-CoV-2 genome prone to mutations? I'm seeing contradictory information and would love clarifications from an expert. MINI-THREAD.
The New York Intelligencer writes, "According to the current research, the virus that causes COVID-19 has a low “error rate,” meaning that its pace of mutation remains slow despite its rapid spread."
But a preprint by an American team reveals: "Like RdRps (RNA-dependent RNA polymerases) in other viruses, the coronavirus enzyme is highly error-prone." biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
So which is it? And does it have a 3'-5' exonuclease activity? I'll keep digging but any expert help will be appreciated! #SARSCoV2 #virology #RNA #scicomm
Just seeing that the reference in the preprint is to an article from 2018 on flaviviruses. Grrr... that's not the same thing!
I got an answer from an expert (whom I'm not naming here since this was over email, just in case he doesn't want to be identified). But his answer is quite illuminating.
"All RNA viruses have high error rates compared to DNA polymerases. However, the CoV error is lower than other RNA viruses because they have ExoN proofreading activity. This is because the genome is so big that a normal error rate would drive the virus to extinction.
"So in a sense, both claims are correct."
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