A virtual conversation about the biology and origin of coronavirus
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19 has caused a lot of changes to our everyday lives including our work life. It does however not stop the researchers from working from home and discussing important questions such as the biology and evolution of coronavirus as the virus is in fact an example of the real-time consequences and dynamics of rapid evolution.
A fascinating online conversation
Center leader Professor Tom Gilbert and PI and Professor Rob Dunn both from Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics have had a fascinating online conservation with their colleagues about the biology and evolution of coronavirus. Their colleagues are Katia Koelle from Emory University, Julie Casani, Matt Koci, and David Rasmussen from NC State, and Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis from SUNY in the United States.
You can read the researchers' answers to complex questions such as: What is a virus and is it alive? What makes a coronavirus different from any other virus? What might influence how able SARS-CoV-2 is to spread from human to human? along with other interesting questions.
This conversation which reflects a series of emails back and forth between Professor Rob Dunn and the other researchers has been published in Applied Ecology News: