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Kit Fix

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has fixed the issue that cropped up with some of its coronavirus testing kits, NPR reports, noting that this has delayed testing in the US.

Earlier this month, the US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization to enable other labs to use a testing kit CDC developed to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the COVID-19 outbreak. A positive result on the test indicates likely infection with SARS-CoV-2, though a negative result does not fully rule out possible infection, as 360Dx noted at the time.

Shortly thereafter, though, some labs that received the CDC kit ran into issues with them during quality control testing, and the agency said it would have to re-manufacture one of the kit's reagents.

According to NPR, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says 40 state labs in the US can now run the test and all 93 labs should be able to by next week.

"It's really good news," Kelly Wroblewski from the Association of Public Health Laboratories, which represents US public health labs tells it. "Testing is incredibly important."

NPR notes that a new COVID-19 case reported in California appears to be the first case of community spread in the US.

The Scan

Foxtail Millet Pangenome, Graph-Based Reference Genome

Researchers in Nature Genetics described their generation of a foxtail millet pangenome, which they say can help in crop trait improvement.

Protein Length Distribution Consistent Across Species

An analysis in Genome Biology compares the lengths of proteins across more than 2,300 species, finding similar length distributions.

Novel Genetic Loci Linked to Insulin Resistance in New Study

A team reports in Nature Genetics that it used glucose challenge test data to home in on candidate genes involved in GLUT4 expression or trafficking.

RNA Editing in Octopuses Seems to Help Acclimation to Shifts in Water Temperature

A paper in Cell reports that octopuses use RNA editing to help them adjust to different water temperatures.