Rooting and Dating Large SARS-CoV-2 Trees by Modeling Evolutionary Rate as a Function of Time.

ABSTRACT: Almost all published rooting and dating studies on SARS-CoV-2 assumed that (1) evolutionary rate does not change over time although different lineages can have different evolutionary rates (uncorrelated relaxed clock), and (2) a zoonotic transmission occurred in Wuhan and the culprit was immediately captured, so that only the SARS-CoV-2 genomes obtained in 2019 and the first few months of 2020 (resulting from the first wave of the global expansion from Wuhan) are sufficient for dating the common ancestor. Empirical data contradict the first assumption. The second assumption is not warranted because mounting evidence suggests the presence of early SARS-CoV-2 lineages cocirculating with the Wuhan strains. Large trees with SARS-CoV-2 genomes beyond the first few months are needed to increase

SUBMITTER: Xia X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10057463 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature