Superspreader events trigger emergence of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants in USA
A team of scientists from the USA and Germany has recently studied the evolution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in a representative set of sequences from the USA collected between 2020 and 2021. The findings reveal that the viral genome has accumulated multiple mutations over time with only occasional loss of mutation. The main driving forces behind such genetic variations include widespread infection and superspreader events. The study is currently available on the
Background
Within one year of its emergence, SARS-CoV-2, the causative pathogen of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has infected 110 million people and claimed 2.4 million lives globally. SARS-CoV-2 is a single-stranded, positive-sense, enveloped virus of the