Slow sand filters (SSFs) are essential for producing high-quality and sustainable drinking water, relying on chemical, physical, and microbial process…

Column: Floor Rusman

De ondertekenaars van deze petitie laten zien dat het Nederlandse volk klaar is met een minister die de hand boven het hoofd gehouden wordt om de coalitie bij elkaar te houden. Dit terwijl de minister...

The origin of SARS-CoV-2 has been intensely scrutinized, and epidemiological and genomic evidence has consistently pointed to Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market as the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Early cases were associated with this market, and environmental sequencing placed the common ancestor of SARS-CoV-2 genomic diversity within the market. Phylogenetic analysis also suggested separate introductions of lineages A and B into the human population, a finding that can be tested with additional data. Here, we curated an expanded sequence dataset of early SARS-CoV-2 viral genomes, including newly available sequences from mid-January 2020. In this dataset, we found no additional support for previously proposed alternative progenitor sequences, or for any evolutionary intermediates between lineages A and B in the human population. Instead, we identified SARS-CoV-2 lineages that may have spread from the market, and additional samples of a sublineage of lineage A with three mutations, including one found in closely related bat coronaviruses. Although our analysis of early pandemic genomes suggests that this mutation is unlikely to characterize the immediate SARS-CoV-2 ancestor, it is more plausible than two previously proposed ancestral genomes. These findings reinforce the proposed emergence of SARS-CoV-2 from the wildlife trade at the Huanan market, demonstrating how new data continues to both solidify and clarify our understanding of how the pandemic began. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

Omroep NTR verdwijnt van de buis. De omroep, bekend van programma’s als Dream School, Het Klokhuis en Het Sinterklaasjournaal, sneuvelt in de grote bezuinigingsslag van minister Eppo Bruins (Media). N...

Slow sand filters (SSFs) are commonly used for treating drinking water, effectively removing contaminants such as particles, organic matter, and micro…

The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said ‘the free world needs a new leader’ and that it was up to Europeans to take this challenge

The health burden of waterborne nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) is a rising concern. While the water supply systems can serve as a potential reservo…

Ensuring the provision of safe drinking water necessitates thorough monitoring of microbial water quality. While traditional culture-based enumeration…

Chlorine, the most widely utilized disinfectant for drinking water globally, has recently been implicated in facilitating the spread of antibiotic res…

Het stabiele genie Donald Trump heeft Hamas een gevoelige slag toegebracht. Dat denkt hij althans zelf.

The presence of aquatic biopolymeric organic carbon of high (> 10 - 20 kDa) molecular weight (high-MW OC) in drinking water produced from surface wate…

Berlijn maakt zich op voor een grootschalig protest op 25 januari.

Donald Trump is nu een paar dagen president en ik ben nu al weer Trumpmoe.

Microbiome science is a multi-disciplinary field, but classical microbiologists are needed to ensure advances are grounded in our understanding of basic microbiological concepts.

Donald Trump is nu een paar dagen president en ik ben nu al weer Trumpmoe.

It’s time to start dividing research funds differently and more fairly, so that academics don’t have to fight each other anymore, says columnist Dirk-Jan Scheffers.