Pandemic-Scale Phylogenomics Reveals Elevated Recombination Rates in the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Region
Y. Turakhia, B. Thornlow, A. S. Hinrichs, J. Mcbroome, N. Ayala, C. Ye, N. De Maio, D. Haussler, R. Lanfear, R. Corbett-Detig
The paper develops a novel phylogenomic method to detect recombination events in SARS-CoV-2 genomes, identifying 606 recombination events across 1.6M samples with 2.7% of genomes showing recombinant ancestry, primarily in the Spike protein region.
bioRxiv · Aug 4, 2021 · PreprintEvolutionary Biology