Queen Marika's Essays in Idleness / No. 97: Why It Mutates So Easily
Hello✨😃 It's Marika✌️
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Thank you for your continued support this time as well🙇♀️
No. 97: Why It Mutates So Easily
The other day, I posted that I had been infected with COVID-19.
On that post, I received this comment.
It seems like mutant strains are spreading again lately. I wonder how many times it has mutated so far...🤔
(Comment by Shirokuman-san)
Shirokuman-san, thank you again for your comment🙇♀️
Indeed, it mutates so much that you almost want to ask, "Just how many times has COVID mutated?"
If it were an insect or a plant, mutants would rarely be born.
The reason for that is clear.
It is because its genetic material is RNA, not DNA😆
The formal name for DNA is deoxyribonucleic acid. A super-simplified translation would be 'deoxygenated ribonucleic acid'.
What is ribonucleic acid?
It is RNA.
Roughly speaking, DNA is 'a substance made by removing an oxygen atom from the elements that make up RNA'.
By reducing the oxygen atom, DNA gained a major benefit.
If I ramble on, it will get confusing, so I will explain it super roughly...
As a result of having fewer oxygen atoms than RNA, DNA became harder to break down ✌️
In other words, while RNA is a substance similar to DNA, it is easier to break down than DNA. The coronavirus uses such a substance as its genetic material.
There is one more decisive difference between DNA and RNA.
DNA has a shape like two strands wound together, but RNA is a single strand 😆
*There are multiple types of RNA, and a single ribbon folds into a unique shape.
Because there are two strands, even if one strand is partially damaged, it is possible to restore it based on the other strand.
In contrast, since RNA is a single strand, if damage occurs, it is difficult to restore it to its original state.
To summarize.
RNA, the genetic material of coronaviruses, is more easily degraded than our own genetic material, DNA, and is difficult to repair if it becomes damaged.
In other words, RNA is more likely to mutate than DNA.
Therefore, coronaviruses, which use RNA as their genetic material, are much more prone to mutation than we are, as we use DNA.
This is the reason why coronavirus variants emerge so frequently.
Besides coronaviruses, there are other viruses that use RNA as their genetic material. Representative examples include the influenza virus, the Ebola virus, and the HIV virus.
All of them, like the coronavirus, are prone to mutation😖
By using DNA as our genetic material, we are able to accurately pass on genetic information to future generations.
Mutation is a gamble, after all.
Something better than the original might be born, but the probability is extremely low. In fact, it is more common for it to interfere with vital life functions.
That is why it is safer to use DNA, which is less prone to mutation.
Then why do coronaviruses use RNA, which is prone to mutation?
That has a lot to do with the unique nature of viruses.
Viruses cannot create offspring on their own. Therefore, they sneak their genetic material into other cells and make those cells create copies of them.
That is why viruses want to enter our bodies.
We cannot just sit back and take it, so we fight back against viruses using our immune system.
Immunity is broadly classified into innate immunity and adaptive immunity. Of these, adaptive immunity is a mechanism that remembers pathogens once infected, making it harder to be infected by the same pathogen again.
* I have also written about immunity in this article.
Adaptive immunity is troublesome for viruses. Once it is remembered by immune cells, any subsequent entry into the body results in immediate destruction.
However, if the genetic material is RNA, which mutates easily, this problem is cleared.
Even if the original is remembered by immune cells, when a mutant strain is born, it has different characteristics from the original, so it falls outside the target of adaptive immune attacks.
That is why, for some viruses like the coronavirus, RNA, which mutates more easily than DNA, is more effective.
To summarize the main points:
- The genetic material of the coronavirus is RNA.
- RNA mutates more easily than DNA.
- Therefore, the coronavirus produces mutant strains one after another.
- Adaptive immunity, which remembers pathogens infected in the past, does not attack mutant strains with changed characteristics.
Both we and the viruses are desperate, after all. The battle between us will likely continue from here on out.
But, getting infected is tough, so I really don't want that... 😵
* This is a related article.
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