1.5 thousand genomes of coronavirus analyzed: there is no "British strain" in Russia

On behalf of the head of the Ministry of Health, the Russian consortium for sequencing the genomes of coronaviruses carried out

a study of more than 1.5 thousand genomes of a new coronavirus infection and found that there is no particularly dangerous “British strain” in Russia.

The data obtained indicate a low rate of variability of the coronavirus and the effectiveness of Russian vaccines against COVID-19, noted the Influenza Research Institute, under whose leadership the study was conducted.

An analysis of changes in the structure of the surface protein S (spike protein) showed that the majority of viruses (63.4%) differed from it by only one amino acid residue.

In the overwhelming majority of cases,mutation D614G, characteristic of the representatives of clade G and its derivatives GH and GR, which have a global distribution. In turn, 33.3% of circulating viruses carry 2–3 substitutions, and only 2.9% have 4 or more substitutions.

The specialists noted that monitoring of such strains continues on an ongoing basis.

Read more

Look at an 8 trillion pixel image of Mars

Scientists have developed a replacement for the theory of relativity. What is the essence of the "theory of everything"?

Abortion and science: what will happen to the children who will give birth