Analysis: Coronavirus mutations - what we’ve learned so far

Dr Lucy van Dorp (UCL Genetics, Evolution & Environment) explains the mutations that Covid-19 is undergoing and how we're still facing fundamentally the same virus as we were at the start of the pandemic. In early January, the first genome sequence of Sars-CoV-2 - the virus that causes Covid-19 - was released under the moniker "Wuhan-1". This string of 30,000 letters (the A, T, C and Gs of the genetic code) marked day one in the race to understand the genetics of this newly discovered coronavirus. Now, a further 100,000 coronavirus genomes sampled from COVID-19 patients in over 100 countries have joined Wuhan-1. Geneticists around the world are mining the data for answers. Where did Sars-CoV-2 come from? When did it start infecting humans? How is the virus mutating - and does it matter? Sars-CoV-2 genomics, much like the virus itself, went big and went global. The term mutation tends to conjure up images of dangerous new viruses with enhanced abilities sweeping across the planet.
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