Slack / Private Message Drop — page 720

SLACK_000934 Non-specifically increasing affinity for mammalian ACE2 receptor... [Robert Garry] Perhaps - curious to see the genomes of the otter SC2s - I'm guessing N501T or Y453F. Maybe some changes in NTD as well. [Andrew Rambaut] "Lam a reporter at Science and my colleague Martin Enserink suggested I reach out to you. I am trying to evaluate the importance of this new preprint: https:/Awww.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.16.440141v1 ?rss=1%22 and am hoping that you can take a quick look at it and give me your reaction to it. Toward that end, I've included some questions below, but we can also talk by zoom if that's more convenient. Please let me know right away that this message has reached you and how you can help. Many thanks. Stay safe, and sane. Elizabeth Pennisi Science Do I call you and evolutionary biologist? If not, then what? What impresses you about this paper and why? What is the most important new insight it provides on the origin of this variant? How strong is the evidence that this variant may have arisen in dogs? Are you convinced? Why or why not? What are your current thoughts about the origin of this variant? What are the biomedical implications of this paper? Any other thoughts? Thanks again, Liz One for you Kristian - animal reservoir. However quick look suggests total balloux. Seems they have mutations accumulating backwards in time. [Kristian Andersen] Yeah, she emailed me too - looks like complete bs. [Kristian Andersen] (only read the abstract...) [Eddie Holmes] And me. Shite. [Eddie Holmes] I'll tell her not to waste time on it and let the reviewers deal with it.