3 ms·

But one that could definitely emerge via gain of function.

• lamontcg 3y ago
  No, it is amazingly unlikely that you'd see an insertion like that arise through some kind of random serial passage. In nature that happens by recombination which takes many millions of infections to emerge. In the lab you are just replicating that process by serial passage through animals where you might have a dozen animals serially infected. And the chances are probably lower because it is less likely the lab animals would wind up coinfected with another virus that would act as the source material. "Gain of function" research isn't magic.