Researchers with the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine have identified three COVID-19 mutations that appear to have developed together.
Dr. Kamlendra Singh is a research professor at the university who studies protein structures. He and his team gathered samples of COVID-19 from around the world to search for a specific mutation that a colleague had been studying, when his students discovered multiple.
"One of them came back and told me, 'hey Dr. Singh… we see other mutations in the genome too'," he explained. "So we started looking at every single mutation."
By using knowledge about how proteins mutate and behave, mathematics and computer programming, they determined that there were actually three of the same strains present in all of the U.S. and European samples.
"They co-evolved, or co-existed," he said.
The findings could be used in contact tracing at both a micro and macro level, helping researchers track the way the virus has spread throughout the world and from person to person.
"You have to go back, try to find out what kind of mutation the person who has just now been diagnosed with the COVID-19 infection… take the virus out of this person and sequence it and try to see what kind of mutations they've had," he said.
It is also possible that different mutations can be responsible for the wide variety of patient outcomes. If that turns out to be the case, researchers could use information about specific strains to better develop targeted treatments and vaccines.
Dr. Singh says it is unclear at this point if the strains developed in the U.S. or elsewhere.
