One Covid-19 Hybrid Virus Found in America, Combination of Two Variants

Two variants of SARS-CoV-2, the corona virus that causes Covid-19, have combined to build strains with a new genome. The 'recombination' event was found in a sample of the virus in California, United States, which immediately alerted the possibility of another new phase of the current pandemic.

The hybrid virus was the result of the recombination of variant B.1.1.7, which was first known to spread in the UK and was highly contagious, and local variant B.1.429 which emerged in California. Speculation is growing that the combined results are behind the current wave of new Covid-19 cases in Los Angeles. The reason is that the new, recombinant variant may carry a mutation that makes it resistant to some antibodies in the body - such as the mutation in variant B.1.429.

The recombinant was found by Bette Korber, a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, United States, who then revealed it in the New York Academy of Sciences forum on February 2, 2021. She stated that she had seen the evidence very clearly in the genome database of the Covid-19 corona virus. which he collected.

If confirmed, the recombinant Covid-19 virus will be the first to be detected in the current pandemic. In December and January, two research groups working separately reported that they had not seen evidence of recombination as Korber had witnessed. Even though they claim to have hoped to see it because combinations are very common in the large corona virus family.

Unlike normal mutations, where each change accumulates over time, the result of recombining two variants can carry several mutations at once. Often, the changes did not benefit the virus, but several times the opposite.

According to François Balloux of University College London, the recombination that occurs can be important evidence for evolutionary change. Among them about how SARS-CoV-2 started.

Even this first recombination can lead to the emergence of new and even dangerous variants, although it is not clear how big the threat is. Korber had just seen that one recombinant genome among the thousands of sequences he carried out. It is also not known whether the virus was transmitted from one person to another or only in one person.

The emergence of a number of new variants of the Covid-19 virus is known to have provided the raw material for recombinations. This is because everyone can be infected at once by different variants of the corona virus. "And we may soon get to the point where there is a lot of recombinants," said Sergei Pond of Temple University, Pennsylvania.

He is also working on tracing recombinants by comparing thousands of sequenced genomes that have been uploaded to the database. So far he said he saw no evidence of widespread recombination of the virus. "The problem is, all the coronaviruses do it, so the question is no longer whether they will recombine but when," Pond said.

The implications of Korber's findings are not certain because the science of recombinant biology is still largely unknown. But clearly it will carry mutations that make it easier for B.1.1.7 to infect cells and mutations that allow B.1.429 to overcome some of the body's antibodies.