Phylogenetic meta-analysis of persistent SARS-CoV-2 infections in immunocompromised individuals highlights the challenges of robust evolutionary rate estimation caused by low genetic diversity

Journal article

Time-stamped genomic sequences from rapidly evolving pathogens can be used to estimate the rates of evolution through molecular tip-dating. The validity of this approach, however, depends on whether detectable levels of genetic variation have accumulated over the given sampling interval, generating temporal signal. Moreover, molecular dating methods have demonstrated varying degrees of systematic biases under different biologically realistic scenarios, such as the presence of phylo-temporal c...

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Authors: Översti, S; Gaul, E; Jensen, B-EO; Kühnert, D

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Journal: Virus Evolution
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 1
• Pages: veaf065-veaf065
• Publication date: 2025-08-30
• DOI: 10.1093/ve/veaf065
• EISSN: 2057-1577
• ISSN: 2057-1577
• Language: English
• Keywords: Evolutionary biology; Sociology; Computational biology; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2); Meta-analysis; Phylogenetics; Diversity (politics); Infectious disease (medical specialty); Phylogenetic diversity; Genetic diversity; Demography; 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak; Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); Genetics; Phylogenetic tree; Estimation; Population; Outbreak; Medicine; Gene; Biology; Virology