An RNA virus is a virus that has RNA (ribonucleic acid) as its genetic material.
RNA viruses generally have very high mutation rates compared to DNA viruses
Numerous RNA viruses are capable of genetic recombination when at least two viral genomes are present in the same host cell. RNA recombination appears to be a major driving force in determining genome architecture and the course of viral evolution.
In the article that you point out, the authors are trying to understand this genome architecture, as it is important to understand how fast the virus will evolve. They used several tools (some for short reads, and others for long reads) to analyze this genome, as no single tool is perfect.
I guess the answer is, yes with this architecture it will evolve quickly.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 15.0 ms ] threadhttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/03/science/coron...
RNA viruses generally have very high mutation rates compared to DNA viruses
Numerous RNA viruses are capable of genetic recombination when at least two viral genomes are present in the same host cell. RNA recombination appears to be a major driving force in determining genome architecture and the course of viral evolution.
In the article that you point out, the authors are trying to understand this genome architecture, as it is important to understand how fast the virus will evolve. They used several tools (some for short reads, and others for long reads) to analyze this genome, as no single tool is perfect.
I guess the answer is, yes with this architecture it will evolve quickly.