Previously submitted to: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (no longer under consideration since May 11, 2023)
Date Submitted: Oct 24, 2022
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Host-independent deletion hotspots in the SARS-CoV-2 genome
ABSTRACT
Background:
SARS-CoV-2 infects a wide range of hosts in varying degrees. The RNA genome of SARS-CoV-2 makes it prone to mutations. Advantageous mutations help the virus to endure and the virus maintains such mutations across various host species.
Objective:
A comprehensive examination of the pattern of deletions in the SARS-CoV-2 genome derived from various hosts and their potential impact on immune escape is urgently required.
Methods:
Here in this study, all non-human hosts-derived SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences from the GISAID database were analyzed
Results:
This study identified 10 deletion hotspots in the SARS-CoV-2 genome, which are preserved by the virus, across various host species, indicating their important role in the virus evolution. Out of these 10, 6 deletion hotspots were found in most of the hosts with high frequency and 8 deletion hotspots were also reported in human-derived SARS-CoV-2 genomes in various studies.
Conclusions:
These deletion hotspots affect the pathogenicity and virulence of the virus and have a role in molecular and serological diagnostics. Potentially, they can lead to neutralizing antibody escape resulting in vaccine failure and the development of drug-resistant variants. Clinical Trial: NA
Citation
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Copyright
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