Oxford University Press A new paper in Genome Biology and Evolution, indicates that while the COVID-19 virus has developed rapidly since 2019, it has done so within limited genetic channels. These genetic limits have remained unchanged. Despite scientists’ earlier fears about dramatic, rapid evolution of the COVID-19 virus, it appears recent changes in the virus were relatively constrained; the virus altered by combining pre-existing mutations. The virus has not expanded the number of genetic routes it can take to evolve. The paper is titled “Structural constraints acting on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein reveal limited space for viral adaptation.”
How SARS-CoV-2 has evolved
SARS-CoV-2 underwent rapid evolution after first infecting humans in late 2019, resulting in new viral variants with properties that made them successful in human hosts.
Previous work has shown how these variants were not closely related to the major circulating variants that preceded them, which led many scientists to believe that changes to the spike protein structure (the spikes or “crown” portion of the familiar COVID-19 microscopic image) drove SARS-CoV-2 variant evolution, enabling new mutations which had previously been impossible for the virus.