As we begin to better understand the variants of the coronavirus, especially the British, new forms of the coronavirus are now appearing. They are called recombinant viruses. So what is the difference between these different forms of viruses?
These first recombinants made their appearance in the United Kingdom, as did the first identified variant of the coronavirus. The newspaper Le Monde spotted, last week, a publication of the COG-UK Consortium, on Virological.org, which brings together public health agencies and universities, which reveals the discovery of eleven recombinants of the coronavirus.
In order to continue to exist, viruses replicate themselves, and that is part of their normal functioning. However, it happens that when replicating, there are errors in the transcription of the genome: this is called mutations. And sometimes these mutations lead to the emergence of a new strain of virus, which is called a variant.
Note that a recombinant is above all also a variant. It is formed, just like it, as a result of mutations in the virus. The specificity of the recombinant is that it is formed from the genetic material of two different variants. Two variants infect the same cell, and when the latter replicates, it combines the genomes of the two variants that infected it to form a new one. As the professor of virology Vincent Maréchal explains at Parisian, it is “the product of the crossing of two parental viruses.”
be infected with two strains at the same time
These recombinants are formed when a person is infected with two different strains of the coronavirus at the same time. It is therefore normal that these recombinants begin to appear now, since two strains must circulate at the same time, and in a sufficiently large manner, which is in particular the case of the British variant and the initial strain of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom. .
Do not panic, however, British researchers have so far detected nothing alarming about their emergence. “The arrival of the recombinants was expected, but will not immediately have consequences on the epidemic trajectory”, indicated the consortium.
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However, they remain to be monitored, because the recombinants “could bring together in the same virus properties derived from two different viruses”, explains the virologist at Le Parisien, which could pose a problem if the two strains at the origin of the recombinant are for example more contagious, or more dangerous.
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