4 ms·

> As far as I know we simply do not have evidence if or if not gain of function research played a role. You can examine phylogenetic distance -- the degree of

> As far as I know we simply do not have evidence if or if not gain of function research played a role. You can examine phylogenetic distance -- the degree of evolutionary drift that the initial virus had from others which are subject to natural (in-the-wild) evolution. COVID is way out there. And even then the closest "natural" virus had its genome published by the Wuhan lab long after the initial outbreak. The lack of any close relatives suggests that gain-of-function very well may have taken place, as does the heightened vulnerability of typical lab-animals. What there isn't much evidence of is zoonotic transfer.

Pyramus 6y ago
That's a reasonable argument. But it requires a very high level of understanding of (bat) corona-viruses in general with a majority of corona-viruses that exist having been sequenced etc. From my (limited) understanding we only know about a fraction of corona-viruses out there, and hence there is great uncertainty in the phylogenetic modelling. I haven't seen a credible write-up, if you can point me in the right direction, that would be appreciated.
- trevelyan 6y ago
  RaTG13 geonome was published January 23, 2020 by Wuhan Institute of Virology. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.22.914952v1.full https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.22.914952v1.... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MN996532 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MN996532
  - Uberphallus 6y ago
    Actually part of the genome of RaTG13 was published as RaBtCoV/4991 back in 2016. Some people suspected it [0] and eventually Dr. Shi confirmed it [1] after. [0] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341547726_Understanding_the_Origin_of_%27BatCoVRaTG13%27_a_Virus_Closest_to_SARS-CoV-2 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341547726_Understan... [1] https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6503/487.full https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6503/487.full
    - trevelyan 6y ago
      Thank you for the reference. [1] particularly interesting.

Pyramus 6y ago

That's a reasonable argument. But it requires a very high level of understanding of (bat) corona-viruses in general with a majority of corona-viruses that exist having been sequenced etc. From my (limited) understanding we only know about a fraction of corona-viruses out there, and hence there is great uncertainty in the phylogenetic modelling. I haven't seen a credible write-up, if you can point me in the right direction, that would be appreciated.

trevelyan 6y ago
RaTG13 geonome was published January 23, 2020 by Wuhan Institute of Virology. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.22.914952v1.full https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.22.914952v1.... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MN996532 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MN996532
- Uberphallus 6y ago
  Actually part of the genome of RaTG13 was published as RaBtCoV/4991 back in 2016. Some people suspected it [0] and eventually Dr. Shi confirmed it [1] after. [0] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341547726_Understanding_the_Origin_of_%27BatCoVRaTG13%27_a_Virus_Closest_to_SARS-CoV-2 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341547726_Understan... [1] https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6503/487.full https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6503/487.full
  - trevelyan 6y ago
    Thank you for the reference. [1] particularly interesting.