Prognosis
Omicron Mutations May Provide Clues About Origin, Analysis Shows
- Variant may be due to lack of surveillance, long-term host
- Mutations appear to work together to make strain ‘fitter’
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Omicron’s unusually large number of mutations on the gene that helps the coronavirus spread may provide clues as to how it developed, according to a computational analysis of the variant.
The co-existence of mutations on the so-called S-gene that would normally inhibit the ability of the virus to thrive suggests the changes are instead working to make the variant more effective at spreading, according to a blog post by researchers led by Associate Professor Darren Martin at the University of Cape Town’s Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine.