2 ms·
isn't 4% difference in DNA pretty significant? that's comparable to the genetic difference between a human and a mouse, iirc.
by leetcrew 7y ago
isn't 4% difference in DNA pretty significant? that's comparable to the genetic difference between a human and a mouse, iirc.
- zip6 7y agoHuman and chimp DNA is 96% the same according to [0]. I'm not a biologist so I have no idea if this logic is applicable to viruses. [0]: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/8/chimps-humans-96-percent-the-same-gene-study-finds/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/8/chimps-humans...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- romski 7y agoIt’s not DNA, it’s an RNA virus. More changes happen with them.
- cjf101 7y agoThere's also a lot less genetic information in a typical virus than in a human, so each mutation represents a much larger percentage change. For context: The entire SARS-COV-2 genome is 29,811 nucleotides long. The human genome is around 3 billion base pairs.
- vikramkr 7y agoQuantifying differences is really difficult and the commonly cited numbers are kinda iffy as a rigorous measurement (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-does-being-99-percent-chimp-mean-180955645/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-does-being-99...) in the sense that the public interprets them - 99% comes from looking at single base pair changes only. For the coronavirus, it's an RNA virus so it'll mutate a lot faster than DNA viruses or organisms like us. And the generation time is gong to be a lot faster to allow for a lot more divergence more quickly than longer generation times in mammals.