A new avatar of SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus is now threatening the world. Epidemiologists call it variant B.1.1.7. Experts say it is natural for a virus to mutate or change its genetic make-up. But this one has proved to be much faster, if not more deadly than its former version. It has spread like wildfire, consuming thousands of lives in a matter of days, especially in Britain and a few other countries. Britain has gone into its third lockdown. Some passengers from Britain to India have tested positive. This calls for strict measures to prevent the mutant virus from taking hold in other countries.
Mutant virus
Scientists have scrambled to analyse the biology of the mutant virus. They have found that it has eight changes that affect its spike protein (responsible for locking on to human cells) and several more in its other genes. Samples from South Africa show nine changes in the spike protein. The challenge is to find out which of them accounts....
