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Sars-Cov-2: An Investigation On Mutagenicity And Its Effects On Infectivity And Mortality, Tyler Elliott Silverwood
Sars-Cov-2: An Investigation On Mutagenicity And Its Effects On Infectivity And Mortality, Tyler Elliott Silverwood
Honors Theses and Capstones
SARS-CoV-2, the etiological agent of the COVID-19 pandemic, has rapidly become a worldwide public health concern. Classified as a betacoronavirus, it is the third human coronavirus (HCoV) to emerge in the 21st century that causes severe disease, alongside SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. The genome consists of open reading frames encoding accessory proteins and four structural proteins, including the spike protein which is a key determinant of host cell tropism. Mutations within the genome, particularly the spike gene, have been linked in-vitro to increased binding affinity to the human receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2), increased fitness in human hosts, and immune evasion. …