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Un trabajo desarrollado en el Instituto de Medicina Legal (IML) de la Universidad Santiago de Compostela (USC) demuestra la existencia de un linaje o secuencia genómica que se concentra casi exclusivamente entre los habitantes de la región franco-cántabra, con un foco principal que se podría situar en el área de influencia vasca, distribuida en la actualidad entre las regiones de Cantabria, País Vasco, Navarra y la Aquitana francesa. (USC/SINC/T21)

Un reciente estudio genético revela que los vikingos se mezclaron con gente de otras partes de Europa y Asia durante sus incursiones quien sabe si de forma violenta. Su rastro aún se encuentra en los genes de los británicos pero sorprende que la genética de estos en los actuales escandinavos es aún mayor y no […]

Los primeros resultados de los análisis genéticos que se han realizado en el concierto piloto llevado a cabo el pasado 14 de junio en el marco del proyecto de investigación ‘Sensogenomics’ han detectado diferencias en la respuesta genética a la música entre los participantes con Alzheimer y sus familiares. Así lo ha confirmado el investigador […]

Una investigación liderada por los doctores Antonio Salas y Federico Martinón Torres, del Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria (IDIS) de Santiago de Compostela, concluye que el virus SARS-Cov-2 pudo haber entrado en España por la ciudad vasca de Vitoria, en torno al 11 de febrero, a través de la cepa genética B3a.

Los efectos de la música sobre los genes y su capacidad para frenar o paliar enfermedades como cáncer, Alzheimer, o Trastorno de Espectro Autista, ese es el objetivo de Sensogenoma22. Se trata de la primera recogida de muestras genéticas a gran escala, antes y después de un concierto, que permitirá profundizar en las bases del estímulo musical y analizar los mecanismos biológicos tras este estímulo.

Una investigación liderada por Antonio Salas y Federico Martinón, de la Facultade de Medicina de la USC y el IDIS, revela también una singularidad en nuestro país: en España se propagó un linaje del virus que apenas penetró en el resto de Europa

Para entender algunas cuestiones en esos temas en los que la mayoría no tenemos formación (aunque opinemos alegremente), a veces hay que recurrir a dar solo una parte de la...

El estudio, publicado en la revista Zoological Research, asegura que hasta la fecha el coronavirus ha generado hasta cinco cepas genéticas distintas que explicarían el 90% de los contagios en nuestro país

Los primeros conciertos de esta temporada serán el 30 de septiembre y 1 de octubre con el Proyecto Sensoxenoma, una iniciativa de investigación llevada a cabo conjuntamente por el IDIS (Instistuto de Investigación Sanitaria de Galicia) y la Real Filharmonía de Galicia en el que se estudiará científicamente la respuesta del genoma ante un estímulo musical. Esto se hará con una recogida de muestras a los asistentes que determinará cómo se comporta su cuerpo antes y después de escuchar el programa, dirigido por Baldur Brönnimann, que será sorpresa. La información detallada de estos dos eventos podrá consultarse en breve a través de la web sensogenoma.es.

El genetista Antonio Salas lidera un proyecto que estudia la cepa B3A del coronavirus, mayoritaria en España y apenas presente en el resto de Europa. 'Es probable que llegara directamente de China y aquí ha dejado huella importante por super contagiadores o un foco destacado', indica el especialista. Los super contagiadores son personas 'que tienen mayor capacidad de contagio que otras, se está estudiando por qué. Pueden tener mayor carga viral, ser asintomáticos o tener síntomas muy leves, por lo que pasan desapercibidos. Puede haber también alguna predisposición genética'. Salas reconoce que 'nos queda por conocer prácticamente todo de este virus. Es un experimento global, con científicos trabajando conjuntamente en todo el mundo'. A pesar de que hay candidatos con desarrollos más avanzados, el genetista considera que 'la vacuna no estará antes de dos años y será un récord científico. Se está avanzando con esta enfermedad mucho más rápido que con cualquier otra'.

The research led by doctors Antonio Salas Ellacuriaga and Federico Martinón Torres concludes that B3a is probably the first lineage of the virus that entered Spain through the city of Vitoria around February 11, 2020 The SARS-Cov-2 virus entered Spain through the city of Vitoria, around February 11, 2020, through the B3la genetic strain. The Basque Country is the autonomous community most likely to host the origin of the pandemic in Spain, with a significant expansion focus that takes place between the 5th and 14th of that month, as well as between March 16 and 19. These are some of the conclusions reached by IDIS scientists Antonio Salas Ellacuriaga and Federico Martinón Torres (head of the Pediatric Service of the Hospital Clínico de Santiago) in an article that has just been published in the journal Zoological Research and that identifies the five genetic strains that would explain 90% of all the incidents in the genome database, practically all the cases of COVID-19 in the Spanish territory. A2a5, the second most important lineage of the virus in Spain, could have originated in Italy, the place where its evolutionary ancestor arises, A2a, in turn, the most important worldwide. The latter would arrive in Spain at the beginning of March and quickly becomes strong in Madrid, the researchers explain. Many of these lineages, whether generated within Spain or imported from abroad, could be exported to other parts of the world, such as England (B3la) or South America (B3la or La2a4, among others). The group of researchers led by IDIS researchers, deciphered the behavior of the virus in the State. Spain represents one of the great global foci of the first wave of the pandemic. In order to understand it from the point of view of the causal agent, the team of researchers analyzed a total of 41,362 genomes, of which 1,245 make up the Spanish sample. This is the largest global study carried out to date in relation to the genomic variability of SARS-CoV-2 in the world and the first published to explore genetic variation in Spain. B3a, the first Spanish lineage The present study is a continuation of the previous pioneering project of the same research group where the authors discovered the importance of super-contagious agents as a major driver of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This time, the scientists focused their efforts on understanding transmission dynamics in Spain. According to this study, there are five main lineages that explain almost 90% of all incidents in the genome database: A2a5 (38.4%), B3a (30.1%), B9 (8.7%), A2a4 (7.8%), e A2a10 (2.8%). Through a combination of evolutionary and mathematical analyzes that take into account not only the chronology of genomes, but also their patterns of genomic variation, we were able to reconstruct the most probable origin of these lineages, inside and outside of Spain, explains Antonio Rooms. The study confirms that while B3a, B9 and the A2a5c sub-lineage arose in Spain; A2a5, A2a4 and A2a10 were imported from other European countries. A distinctive aspect of SARS-CoV-2 in Spain is the high frequency of genomes belonging to strain B: 39.3%; mostly represented by sub-strains B3a and B9. In the study presented, an investigation is carried out in the purest police style by combining the information that comes from different sources, basically evolutionary, geospatial and chronological (phylogeography), and using the enormous source of information provided by the large international database of genomes used in the study ”, explain the scientists. In relation to the B3a lineage, and in light of the existing data in the genomes that make up the sample, the study concludes that the Basque Country is the most likely area to host its origin. On the other hand, A2a5, the second most important lineage in Spain most likely originated in Italy, another of the great non-Asian epicenters in the expansion of the coronavirus, say Salas and Martinón. The D614 G mutation is less frequent in Spain There are already some studies that suggest that the D614 G mutation in the coronavirus gives it a greater transmission capacity. Our study indicates that this mutation is present in approximately 56% of all strains in Spain, which might seem very high, but it is nevertheless the lowest in all of Europe (82%), they point out. The results of these researchers do not support an implication of this mutation in the high incident of COVID-19 in Spain, not only because of its frequency, which is difficult to fit with the incident of the disease, but also because the mutation arises in A2 and not A2a; but it is A2a, nevertheless, “the strain that is successful worldwide”. The authors propose that it is chance, technically genetic drift, favored by super-contagion events, which increases the frequency of this mutation worldwide. The main lineages of Spain experienced sudden increases in their effective size in a very short time and in specific cities. The evolutionary analysis of these lineages reveals that behind these expansions of the virus the mediation of super-contactors was necessary. There are several sources of evidence in relation to this fact that have to do with the half-life of the virus strains, their evolutionary rates, geographical location, or chronology, among others. For all these reasons, we believe that the role of super-contactors and not advantageous variations in the virus genome, had much more importance when it comes to understanding and explaining the epidemiology of SARS-Cov-2, says Martinón. The methodology used by the Salas and Martinón group will serve as a model to study any other area of the world and demonstrates the possibility of studying the dynamics of the virus at small geographic scales when analyzed in an international pandemic context. This work is just one part of a much more ambitious project called GEN-COVID, a bet that integrates genomics, transcriptomics, epixenomics, proteomics and immunology. The article entitled 'Phylogeography of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Spain: a story of multiple introductions, micro-geographic stratification, founder effects, and super-spreaders' is also signed by Alberto Gómez Carballa, Xabier Bello Paderne, Jacobo Pardo Seco and María Luisa Pérez del Molino-Bernal.