[tripletao]

As far as I can tell, WIV (and other) researchers have left other restriction sites in final genomes, but not BsaI and BsmBI sites. That makes sense given the typical use of those two enzymes. So I'm inclined to agree there's nothing obviously special about that combination of restriction sites and spacings, which increases my concern that this is just a false discovery.

Jesse Bloom said he'd try reproducing with a wider range of natural viruses and potential synthetic assembly strategies. Unless and until that still gets an interesting p value, I'd agree this is oversold.