Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad and Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) New Delhi have started working together on the whole genome sequencing of novel coronavirus. CCMB Director Dr. Rakesh Mishra said, this will help them to understand the evolution of the virus. He said, this study will also help them to know how fast it evolves and what are the future aspects of it.
Whole genome sequencing is the method used to determine the complete DNA sequence of a specific organism’s genome. The approach for sequencing the coronavirus involves getting samples from patients and sending these to sequencing centre. Genome sequencing need very large number of samples for study.
Dr. Mishra said, without much data if you make any conclusion that may not be right. He said, at the moment they are accumulating as many sequencings as they can and once they have few hundred sequencing with them, then they will be able to make many inferences from many biological aspects of this virus.
Each institute is continuously working on the whole genome sequencing. In the next 3-4 weeks researchers would be able to get at least 200-300 isolates and this information would help them to make some further conclusion about behaviour of this virus. For this purpose, National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune has also been requested to provide virus that has been isolated from various places. This will help the scientists to cover the whole country to get a bigger and clearer picture. This will help the institutes to establish the family tree of the virus.
Dr Mishra told that based on this they can study from where the virus has come which strain has more similarity. He said, this will give some strategic clues to understand it and to implement better isolation strategies. In addition to this, the institute has also increased the testing capacity. This will help to identify the number of positive cases and then send them for isolation or quarantine.
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