WASHINGTON DC : About 70% of the 50,000 genomes of the coronavirus that was uploaded by researchers have undergone mutations.
Researchers from Northwest University's medical school in Chicago believe that mutation in the coronavirus has made it considerably more contagious.At first glance, the mutations seemed trivial.
About 1,300 amino acids serve as building blocks for a protein on the surface of the virus. But the locations of the mutation is significant because the switch occurred in the part of the genome that codes for the all-important "spike protein", The Washington Post reported.In the mutant virus, the genetic instructions for just one of the amino acids switched in the new variant from a "D" (aspartic acid) to "G" (glycine)Egen.