Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Roma (Agenzia Fides) - The corona virus, considered responsible for SARS severe acute respiratory syndrome in 10% of its genome completes eight mutations every time it replicates itself. This was discovered by Italian researches at the Higher Institute for Health during a joint study with Irvine University in California.
The speed of its mutation, according to the Italian researchers, is extremely high in one brief part of its genome and it is similar to that of the HIV virus.
Working on sequences of genomes available on the Internet, the researchers studied first in detail the genome of the SARS corona virus SARS (SARS-CoV), and then focussed on a particular region of the virus called Open Reading Frame 1ab (ORF 1ab), which would appear to be the most variable, and which can therefore supply the most information on the evolution of the virus. In sequences compared, about 90% of the viral genome was seen to be invariable, that is, not subject to mutation during evolution. The remaining 10% can change in the ORF 1ab region at an extremely high speed, achieving about 8 mutations for every cycle of replication. The same number of alterations in the same period of time is completed by the HIV virus. (AP) (6/2/2004 Fides Service; Righe:19 Parole:210 )
