Large-scale analysis of SARS-CoV-2 spike-glycoprotein mutants demonstrates the need for continuous screening of virus isolates
Journal: bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
Year: 2021

Abstract Due to the widespread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the SARS-CoV-2 genome is evolving in diverse human populations. Several studies already reported different strains and an increase in the mutation rate. Particularly, mutations in SARS-CoV-2 spike-glycoprotein are of great interest as it mediates infection in human and recently approved mRNA vaccines are designed to induce immune responses against it. We analyzed 146,917 SARS-CoV-2 genome assemblies and 2,393 NGS datasets from GISAID, NCBI