As Omicron mutates wildly the virus shows first signs of convergent evolution

Oct 11, 2022 | News | 0 comments

Convergent evolution is defined by the following, “In evolutionary biology, convergent evolution is the process whereby organisms not closely related (not monophyletic), independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches.”

Interesting changes in virus that causes COVID-19 are starting to make it act in different ways than before and it may be cause for concern:

“Over the last couple of months researchers tracking emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants have started noticing something strange. No one new variant has looked like taking over but instead a variety of different subvariants seemed to be accumulating the same mutations.

These mutations all seemed to be converging in a way to evade our pre-existing immunity, and a striking study recently appeared speculating the virus has the potential to completely escape our current immune responses. As many people around the world return to normality, deeming the pandemic over, these new evolutionary signals suggest we may be done with thinking about COVID but SARS-CoV-2 is most certainly not done with us”

To read the full article, click the link below:

https://newatlas.com/science/omicron-mutates-convergent-evolution-original-antigenic-sin/

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