Genomic characterisation and epidemiology of 2019 novel coronavirus: implications for virus origins and receptor binding.
What follows is an excerpt from a new scientific research paper published at PubMed.gov and maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine
“As a typical RNA virus, the average evolutionary rate for coronaviruses is roughly 10– ⁴ nucleotide substitutions per site per year,1 with mutations arising during every replication cycle. It is, therefore, striking that the sequences of 2019-nCoV from different patients described here were almost identical, with greater than 99·9% sequence identity. This finding suggests that 2019-nCoV originated from one source within a very short period and was detected relatively rapidly. However, as the virus transmits to more individuals, constant surveillance of mutations arising is needed.”
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Found in the full text of this paper https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32007145