SARS-CoV-2 can infect multiple mammalian carnivores and has now been detected in multiple mink farms to date 👇
Across high coverage #SARSCoV2 genomes isolated from mink @GISAID we pick up unique mutations including one in the #spike protein which has appeared at least five times in phylogenetically distant #mink lineages.
This mutation, falling within the receptor binding domain, may be a good candidate for adaptation of #SARSCoV2 to #mink hosts. While this mutation has been seen in #SARSCov2 in human circulation it is rare. Currently available mink genomes fall in the diversity of human #SARSCoV2
More information is required from the press release, including making the #genomes publicly available to the community, to allow better characterisation of the mutations present in Danish mink farms and their possible impact (if any).
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In our @LancetMicrobe paper we report 671 Mtb genomes 🧬from 391 patients with drug #resistant#tuberculosis in KwaZulu-Natal South Africa sampled over 6 years.
We screened for resistance to #bedaquiline, a drug now central to effective #TB treatment.
We found ~4% of patients harboured #Mtb with variants in genes known to mediate #resistance to bedaquiline/clofazimine.
Phylogenetic analyses show repeated & independent acquisitions of resistance variants, including onward transmission of resistant strains across South Africa.
Bedaquiline is a reasonably new, but now cornerstone, drug in the fight against #DRTB.
The lack of routine #bedaquiline susceptibility testing may allow these #resistant strains to continue to spread, unwatched, posing further significant challenges to #TB treatment & control.
Our paper on the emergence of genomic diversity and recurrent mutations in #SARSCoV2 is now out in #IGEtinyurl.com/yb4mxhes As with many others, we’ve been working hard tracing the evolution of #SARSCoV2 using thousands of genomes 🧬shared on @GISAID. Here's what we found👇/1
Here we analyse >7500 viral genomes from all around the 🗺️ We show that the time of the host-jump of #SARSCoV2 into humans dates to late last year, consistent with estimates by several others
Genetic data shows #SARSCoV2 only recently started infecting us & was detected fast. /2
Around the world we see large amounts of regional genetic diversity with marked & repeated intros to many countries
Eg. we place genomes sampled from UK patients throughout the global tree. There is no such concept as a patient zero (see @nextstrain also for visualisations) /3
On our hunt for past malaria we were fortunate to obtain a collection of blood-stained medical #microscope#slides prepared for diagnostics purposes in 1944 in Spain, one of the last footholds of #malaria in Europe. (2/7)