Many viruses, particularly RNA viruses, mutate at a very high rate per genome per replication. One possible explanation is that high mutation rates are selected to meet the challenge of fluctuating ...

As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, researchers say it is important to track how the coronavirus mutates because it could affect the efficacy of a vaccine. Like all living cells, viruses evolve their ...

Scientists in Switzerland have cracked open a century-old viral mystery by decoding the genome of the 1918 influenza virus from a preserved Zurich patient. This ancient RNA revealed that the virus had ...

Ask a friend what DNA is and, chances are, they have a general idea. Seventy years after scientists discovered the two-stranded helix, DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is widely understood as the keeper of ...