ArticleJournal of genetics and genomics = Yi chuan xue bao2021
Evidence for a mouse origin of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.
Article in Journal of genetics and genomics = Yi chuan xue bao, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 167 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
167 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 296 citations in OpenAlex.
- Tracing the origin of Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2): A systematic review and narrative synthesis.Journal of medical virology · 2022Pooled it
- Trial
- Infection of urban rodents by SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 healthcare facilities in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo.One health outlook · 2026Article
- Epidemiological surveillance and genomic characterisation of betacoronavirus inOne health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2026Article
- Coronavirus diversity and SARS-CoV-2 exposure at the wildlife-human interface in Northern Italy.Virology journal · 2026Article
- Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 Exposure in Rodents from Rural Localities in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.Viruses · 2026Article
- Clues to Long COVID Linked to Virulence and Infectivity Found in Shell Proteins.Advances in respiratory medicine · 2026Review
- Beyond the Mutation Abyss: Revisiting SARS-CoV-2 Receptor-Binding Domain Evolution from ACE2 Binding Optimization to Immune Epitope Remodeling.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- IFITM3 deficiency drives SARS-CoV-2 adaptation while preserving variant-specific traits.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Slowdown of synonymous substitution rate preceding the emergence of multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants.Virus evolution · 2026Article
- Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 caused infection in farmed minks: continuous surveillance of an 11-month outbreak at the largest Latvian mink farm.Virus evolution · 2026Article
- Identification of mathematical patterns in genomic spectrograms linked to variant classification in complete SARS-CoV-2 sequences.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Convergent Evolution and Host-Limiting Impacts of SARS-CoV-2 Revealed by Cellular Experiments.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- SARS-CoV-2 Evolution in Humans Enables Its Transmission to Nonhuman Primates.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- A clue to clarify the origin of Omicron.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Therapeutic applications of interface-mimicking peptides for targeting the SARS-CoV-2 NSP12-NSP8 RdRp complex.Molecular therapy : the journal of the American Society of Gene Therapy · 2025Article
- Anomalous Spike Mutations and Sporadic Global Detection of the SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 Lineage.JMA journal · 2025Article
- Coronaviruses in wild rodent and eulipotyphlan small mammals: a review of diversity, ecological implications and surveillance considerations.The Journal of general virology · 2025Review
- Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 Alpha Variant in White-Tailed Deer, Ohio, USA.Emerging infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Determinants of susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection in murine ACE2.Journal of virology · 2025Article
107 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The rapid accumulation of mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant that enabled its outbreak raises questions as to whether its proximal origin occurred in humans or another mammalian host. Here, we identified 45 point mutations that Omicron acquired since divergence from the B.1.1 lineage. We found that the Omicron spike protein sequence was subjected to stronger positive selection than that of any reported SARS-CoV-2 variants known to evolve persistently in human hosts, suggesting a possibility of host-jumping. The molecular spectrum of mutations (i.e., the relative frequency of the 12 types of base substitutions) acquired by the progenitor of Omicron was significantly different from the spectrum for viruses that evolved in human patients but resembled the spectra associated with virus evolution in a mouse cellular environment. Furthermore, mutations in the Omicron spike protein significantly overlapped with SARS-CoV-2 mutations known to promote adaptation to mouse hosts, particularly through enhanced spike protein binding affinity for the mouse cell entry receptor. Collectively, our results suggest that the progenitor of Omicron jumped from humans to mice, rapidly accumulated mutations conducive to infecting that host, then jumped back into humans, indicating an inter-species evolutionary trajectory for the Omicron outbreak.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.