Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

February 16, 2021

Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Mutations in the United States Suggests Presence of Four Substrains and Novel Variants

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Whole genome sequencing of 12,754 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from the US suggests the presence of 4 substrains and 11 most frequent mutations as of September 11, 2020. The 2 most common mutations are also the top 2 in the world (D614G mutation in the spike protein and the P323L mutation), both of which were detected in the US in February 2020. The authors note that the S24L mutation, which was the 11th most frequent in the US and likely originated in the US, has unusually strong gender distribution, occurring more frequently in females. The authors suggest that their analysis indicates that two of four SARS-CoV-2 substrains in the US may become more infectious due to the mutations they have acquired.

Wang et al. (Feb 2021). Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Mutations in the United States Suggests Presence of Four Substrains and Novel Variants. Communications Biology. https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-01754-6