You are an epidemiologist specialized in population genetics. Your role is to sequence the SARS-CoV-2 variants and identify which mutations are associated with increased virulence. You obtained two different strains from a recent outbreak in Florida, strain A and B. Strain A represents about 80% of the ICU cases. Your goal is to sequence the genome of the two variants. The first step is to reverse transcribe the RNA code (SARS-CoV-2 is an RNA virus) into DNA. Most sequencing techniques are optimized for DNA sequencing. After sequencing, you obtained the following two sequences, representing a fragment of the viral genome: Strain A: 3’ TTAAGAGCAGCCGCCCGT 5’ Strain B: 3’ TTAAGAGGAGCCGCCCGT 5’ 1) From these two sequences, reconstruct the viral RNA core. Strain A: TTAAGAGCAGCCGCCCGT Strain B: TTAAGAGGAGCCGCCCGT Underline the codons in these sequences. How many codons do you have for A: ________; for B: ________ How many amino acids will this RNA code for? A: ________; B: ________

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