COVID wildlife variants (IMAGE)
Caption
Imagine a virus is like a key, and the cells it can infect are like locks. A virus can’t infect any cell of any animal; it needs to find a cell with the right “lock” (called a receptor) or change its key (the viral proteins) to fit a new lock. To do this, a key needs to change shape by acquiring mutations to fit the new lock. This is what Carla Finkielstein and the Virginia Tech Molecular Diagnostic Lab at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute noted with the keys present in SARS-CoV-2 when the virus jumped to wild species like opossums and squirrels. The key S-protein acquired at least two mutations, displayed in yellow in this simulation, that provided an evolutionary path for the virus to jump and transmit to other species. The purple part is the receptor that’s recognized by the S-protein so the virus can enter.
Credit
Carla Finkielstein/Virginia Tech
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