The Amazing Genome and Evolution of SARS-CoV-2
SARS-CoV-2 caught most experts off guard with its evolutionary alacrity , but it always should have been expected to be very good at evolution despite a relatively low mutation rate . The progenitor virus(or, at least, the majority of its genome) came from bats. Bats have amazing immune systems due to their colony lifestyle in cramped quarters and their high metabolic rate. Further, coronaviruses have the longest genomes of any known +ssRNA viral family, and viruses are under constant evolutionary pressure to keep their genomes small. The genome of SARS-CoV-2 is about 30kb in length. The value of the genome was evidently great enough to compensate for that pressure. There is more highly conserved genetic material in coronaviruses than others, which in SARS-CoV-2's case means a lot of finely tunable accessory genes that screw up the immune system badly and even vicious microRNA's outside the coding regions of actual genes . SARS-CoV-2 has absolutely ingenious replicatio...