OREANDA-NEWS. The "particularly vicious" variant of the coronavirus, which spread to India and became known as the "double mutant", is most likely a recombinant strain that has undergone five to six mutations at once, which could make it more infectious. Professor of the School of Systems Biology at George Mason University, biologist Ancha Baranova told about this in an interview with Lente.ru.

“The Indian 'double mutant' was first described in October 2020. The expert noted that there are not even two mutations in it, but five or six, and two of them are especially "evil". “

She explained that a double mutation can happen in two ways: “The first is just one in order, then another. This is the standard version, and is quite slow. But there is also a quick way, when two viruses enter the same cell, exchange pieces of RNA with each other, and, accordingly, we get a hybrid version with two mutations at once. "

At the same time, the expert noted that until now none of the scientists clearly and definitely said that this strain is recombinant. Although, in her opinion, in favor of the hypothesis of the rapid evolution of coronaviruses is indirect, there is already a lot of convincing evidence.