How molecular barcodes can bring us one step closer for better
understanding and preventing from EIDs
As mentioned in the previous section that evolutionary bottlenecks
filter out those functionally recessive viruses; the viruses that are
able to pass through the selection pressure of bottlenecks usually
emerge certain genotypic changes, to be more specific, nucleotide
substitutions, allowing the viruses to adapt to a new host. Virus
sequence changes caused by evolutionary constraints are critical for
zoonotic viruses to jump across the barrier between different species;
thereby owning experimental evolution models (Figure 6), with which we
can track dynamic changes of viral sequences in the short term followed
by testing pathogenic phenotypes associated with their genetic
robustness, visualizing fitness landscapes and predicting their
long-term evolutionary paths at a single-sequence level becomes
irreplaceable to better understand pathogenesis of emerging viruses and
to set up antiviral strategies in advance. Below we will share two of
our ideas about what molecular barcodes can bring us one step closer to
dissecting emerging infectious diseases.