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I see, thanks for the reply! I was thinking that maybe because Covid is an RNA virus, there would be a shortcut to getting the mRNA sequence for creating the s

I see, thanks for the reply! I was thinking that maybe because Covid is an RNA virus, there would be a shortcut to getting the mRNA sequence for creating the spike protein. The scientists could peek at the RNA in the actual virus, recognize the spike protein, and put that in the vaccine. Whereas with a DNA virus, it would require extra work. But from your answer, it sounds like that's not what they do? Or, maybe they could do that but it's not any easier than working backwards from the amino acid sequence. This stuff is all very interesting!

rolph 6y ago
the short cut is that DNA virus has a further layer of code utilization , the DNA must be read out and transcribed to mRNA, then translated to protien. there is an extra step in there, but you can still use a synthetic mRNA to create a protien specific to putative antigens decorating the surface of the DNA virus, or of the infected cell, or both if your rich and want to make sure. a DNA virus must be understood somewhat to find the reading frame for the protien you need, this is the case for RNA virus as well however RNA virus are limited in size due to the instability of RNA, this means less kruft to wade through until you find the FOO