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Over From Europe

SARS-CoV-2 circulating in New York mostly arrived in the region from Europe, as GenomeWeb reports.

Two teams of researchers — one at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the other at New York University Grossman School of Medicine — came to that similar conclusion, the New York Times reports, by analyzing different sets of coronavirus samples obtained from patients in mid-March. The NYU team, for instance, has so far analyzed viral genetic information gathered via nasal swab samples taken from 75 patients at three different New York hospitals, as HealthDay reports. HealthDay adds that the researchers contributed their data to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, which is also now tracking coronavirus cases.

As the Times adds, this collection of viral data enabled the researchers to trace the origins of the New York strains. The NYU researchers estimated that the virus began circulating there a few months ago and the Mount Sinai researchers uncovered that many of the viruses they saw were nearly identical to ones observed in Europe. This, the Mount Sinai researchers say, according to the Times, reveals "a period of untracked global transmission between late January to mid-February."

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.