
Can you explain this SARS-CoV-2 paper in simple terms? - pdm55
https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30406-2
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JPLeRouzic
An RNA virus is a virus that has RNA (ribonucleic acid) as its genetic
material.

RNA viruses generally have very high mutation rates compared to DNA viruses

Numerous RNA viruses are capable of genetic recombination when at least two
viral genomes are present in the same host cell. RNA recombination appears to
be a major driving force in determining genome architecture and the course of
viral evolution.

In the article that you point out, the authors are trying to understand this
genome architecture, as it is important to understand how fast the virus will
evolve. They used several tools (some for short reads, and others for long
reads) to analyze this genome, as no single tool is perfect.

I guess the answer is, yes with this architecture it will evolve quickly.

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coder4life
Yes. Read this instead. Says same, better.

[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/03/science/coron...](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/03/science/coronavirus-
genome-bad-news-wrapped-in-protein.html)

