The Coronaviridae - 5

Genes of Viruses, Book Review, Scientist Review

One of the more important dynamics we are currently missing, concerning 'genes', is the impact of Epigenetics upon them, as has been discussed (On The Origin of Genieology) here on Dredd Blog with sufficient disgust (The "It's In Your Genes" Myth).

In other words, genes can be turned on or off, like the machinery in our vehicles (radio, wipers, lights, horn, engine, etc.).

Our 'myth gene' is really turned on by commercial media (Blind Willie McTell News; On the Origin of Cultural Epigenetics; The Uncertain Gene, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11).

Even though our genes are in us and are being replicated by human and microbial cells in and on us, they are not all 'on' nor are they all 'off' either.

What "controls the significant turning on and off" of gene activity is generally studied in the discipline of Epigenetics.

In today's appendices (Countries A-C, Countries D-Z, USA SARS-CoV, USA SARS-CoV-2) I display the GenBank database mentioned in previous posts (e.g. The Coronaviridae - 4). 

Those appendices show the results of the genes set forth in GenBank Flat Files (GBFF), and are arraigned in separate tables by country, but sorted by date of discovery.

The data in those GBFF files was produced by scientists from around the world in an effort to share scientific information.

I go through them, extracting those that chronicle genes (location and length in the genome) of the Coronaviridae.

Based upon assertions by the professionals in those files, I search the genome to verify, or not, the gene length and locations specified in the GBFF files.

The results in the appendices indicate that the realms of Coronaviridae that preceded SARS-CoV-2 (e.g. SARS-CoV-1) commonly contain major differences in terms of number of genes, and average gene size.

Those results also indicate that the SARS-CoV-2 realm of the Coronaviridae is much more stable in terms of number of genes and average gene size.

In the tables of the appendices I have made the average gene size column value bold where mutations have taken place in the SARS-CoV-2 viruses (a mutation indicates a damaged virus).

This research tells us nothing about which genes in a SARS-CoV-2 virus (or any other Coronaviridae virus) are 'on' and which genes are not 'on'.

Our scientific research at this point in time has not yet sufficiently plumbed those depths.

Nevertheless, it is helpful to know the quantity and average gene size in order to begin to grasp the information made available to us.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

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