Slack / Private Message Drop — page 334

Totally agree. Might be good if DRASTIC were distracted for a while. [2020-12-21 14:04:42] [Kristian Andersen] Chronic infection seems more likely to me - however, I don't think we can rule out potential epizootic spilling back into humans. But all these mutations certainly look consistent with chronic infection [2020-12-21 14:05:23] [Kristian Andersen] Bob, from the paper above - really does seem 501 is a key 'transmission' residue. Of course, 501T has also been observed. [2020-12-21 14:05:31] [Andrew Rambaut] It wouldn't be a simple epizootic - extensive transmission in mink didn't produce more than a few mutations [2020-12-21 14:06:13] [Kristian Andersen] Mink > rodents > humans - or some weird shit. But yeah, I agree - not consistent with what has been observed in mink and fully consistent with what has been observed in chronic infections. [2020-12-21 14:06:41] [Andrew Rambaut] South Africa are really worried about E484K (in conjunction with 501Y) [2020-12-21 14:06:43] [Robert Garry] Actually might be good to ask about for others that are adapting SC2 to mice - we've got a few groups here as well. Baric got Q493K by passing SC2 in mice. https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)31247-2?rss=yes It was Sun et al. got N501Y, Q493H, and K417N. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.10.377333v1 [2020-12-21 14:08:00] [Kristian Andersen] E484K - yeah, I _do_ wonder if there's some weird synergy going on between mutations here - I have a hard time believing all of this is down to 501 alone. But hey :man-shrugging: [2020-12-21 14:08:42] [Andrew Rambaut] They also have K417N in ZA [2020-12-21 14:09:00] [Kristian Andersen] Heh. Oooookay. [2020-12-21 14:09:19] [Kristian Andersen] 2/3 mutations associated with rodents? [2020-12-21 14:11:52] [Kristian Andersen] Yeah, so SA is K417N and N501Y - SA/UK both Q493 [2020-12-21 14:12:43] [Kristian Andersen] So really major amino acid changes in the few they have - flipping around charges, etc.