(MARCH 1, 2020)
ElMundo.es (courtesy of Google Translate):
“…Preliminary analyzes indicate that the genome identified in Brazil has three mutations with respect to the reference strain of the Chinese city of Wuhan , the epicenter of the virus…“
They decipher the genetic sequence of the coronavirus
According to the Government of Sao Paulo, it is the first time that the genetic sequence of the coronavirus causing Covid-19 pneumonia has been deciphered in Latin America, where the case of Brazil and two others in Mexico have barely been registered.
The work was carried out by the Adolfo Lutz Institute of Brazil, a national reference laboratory, together with the Institute of Tropical Medicine of the University of Sao Paulo (USP) and the University of Oxford.
“The complete genome data” of the new coronavirus, which emerged in China and has caused an international health crisis, is “essential for the development of vaccines and diagnostic tests, and important for understanding the spread of the virus and for detecting mutations “, said a researcher Claudio Sacchi, from the Adolfo Lutz Institute. The scientists performed the sequence by nanopores through a portable device launched by a British “start-up” that connects to a computer program capable of “translating” the genome.
Preliminary analyzes indicate that the genome identified in Brazil has three mutations with respect to the reference strain of the Chinese city of Wuhan , the epicenter of the virus. Two of those changes detected are close to the strain found in Germany. Therefore, the virus detected in the Brazilian patient, who is isolated at home and with a stable clinical picture, has a greater genetic similarity with the cases detected in Europe.
