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jayhillcpa t1_j7ix4s8 wrote

Reply to comment by NotAnotherEmpire in (Virology) Has SARS-CoV-2 outcompeted all the other coronaviruses which have been called the ‘common cold’? by jsgui

How are the mutations identified when testing? Wouldn’t the mechanisms need to change every time a new variant popped up?

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gengengis t1_j7jjmf6 wrote

Genetic testing. The viral genome is sequenced and edits between specimens are catalogued.

There are a shitload of mutations between most specimens. Many of these might be single amino acid flips which might not do anything at all. But the viral genome has certain core regions essential to its function. For instance, with Covid, one of these regions codes for the spike protein necessary for infecting host cells.

We can then count up the major core mutations and get an idea of how different one specimen is from another. And indeed, because this science has advanced so much, we can even make predictions about how certain mutations will affect the viral proteins, and how those changes might affect transmissibility and immune evasion.

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jayhillcpa t1_j7jtuap wrote

So if I drive through one of the mobile testing sites, sequencing and editing occurs all within minutes whilst I’m waiting in my car? Wouldn’t it behoove the individuals by specifying the variant they tested positive for? How does the (what sounds like splicing) categorization occur with the home testing kits - the testing kits that clearly state it cannot and does not differentiate between SARS-COV-1 and COV-2?

As far as predictions go, the “science” apparently isn’t that advanced. It’s as if I were to propose the following, because I can count to 100, I can predict the winning power ball numbers.

By the way thank you for the response.

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sirgog t1_j7jussa wrote

A small percentage of people who are tested have their sample sequenced as well.

If a lab performs 250000 PCR tests a week and gets 20000 positives, it will likely sequence 100 of the positives.

This then shows trends across the population in which variants are dominating.

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