1. The SARSCoV-2 virus is an RNA virus.

It is was reported to be have

mutated already. What is the implication of this?

Viruses cannot replicate by themselves. They need to infect a host first before they
could reproduce. The virus does this by hacking into an organism’s cells and using the
cell to effectively make new copies of itself.

Upon entering a cell, it will free its genetic material into the cytoplasm of that cell. This
genetic material, the ribosomes, will read the virus’ blueprint, leading to it ultimately
creating a new virus. Its nucleic acids will be read into its corresponding amino acid.
These amino acids will be “stringed” together to create protein. Occasional
circumstances such as wrong coding may lead to changes, which will result to an
offspring that is slightly different from its parent thereby causing a mutation. Since
amino acids define the characteristics of that virus, this will change the virus’
characteristics.

However, since a single virus only affect that virus, that mutation will only occur on that
one organism it is currently preying on. It would need to be passed on to new
generations by infecting a different host. If it would not be able to replicate, then the
mutated virus would not be observed in other organisms.

Given that the SARS-CoV 2 has already mutated, this could mean that an infected
organism who has a mutated virus has been able to pass it on by infecting
another organism with that same mutated virus. The mutated virus could have
been spread to a number of people, causing a significant characteristic change of
the virus among infected individuals. The mutation is now noticeable because of the
good number of individuals who have the same virus, but is slightly different from
the ones first encountered during the start of the outbreak.
2. From what you know about DNA technology and genetic engineering,
construct a schematic diagram of the reverse transcriptase-polymerase
chain reaction (RT-PCR) procedure.
3.

Why is it regarded as the gold standard in testing COVID infection?

Recovery from the COVID-19 virus results in a positive antibody test and it is
ideal that a recovered person must have immunity from future viral infections. As
of now however, scientists are not sure if having a positive immunity result
means you could still contract the disease, or you are already immune. They are
also not sure if this immunity is permanent or temporary, and if it will last long.

It is also important to note that antibody tests could still acquire false-positive
results. These tests are not advisable to be used as diagnostic tests for the
presence of the COVID-19 since antibodies take weeks or even months to
develop. It is vital that the tests used must have high sensitivity on cases like this.

RT-PCR have shown extreme sensitivity on detection of several viruses. Based

on a research conducted by the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics of
Geneva, Switzerland, a 100% sensitivity has been recorded among five tests of
positive samples, and 96% sensitivity on negative samples. The chances of not
getting false positives is around one out of three, which is only around 30 to 35
percent. Since getting false results is low for RT-PCR tests, its accuracy makes it
considered as a test of gold standard in testing COVID-19.