Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

February 23, 2021

Characterizing SARS-CoV-2 Genome Diversity Circulating in South American Countries: Signatures of Potentially Emergent Lineages?

Category:

Topic:

Keywords (Tags): ,

Analysis of nearly 6,000 publicly available SARS-CoV-2 genome assemblies in South America identified a total of 169 circulating lineages across 16 South American countries, with the B lineage the predominantly circulating lineage. Lineages of concern that were identified include the P.1 variant (94 genomes) and the B.1.1.7 variant (28 genomes), with both variants displaying 33 mutations compared to the reference strain. In contrast, other circulating lineages had 24 or fewer mutations compared to the reference strain.

Muñoz et al. (Feb 2021). Characterizing SARS-CoV-2 Genome Diversity Circulating in South American Countries: Signatures of Potentially Emergent Lineages? International Journal of Infectious Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2021.02.073