The genetic piece that has been mutated or altered is called 677. The different changes are so similar that the researchers believe that evolution favors these particular variants. And it’s in a troubling place, said Vaughn Cooper, director of the Center for Evolutionary Biology and Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who worked on the study.
“This section of Spike is important because of its proximity to an important virulence region,” Cooper told CNN via email.
“We actually think these mutations are relatively rare (compared to other types of mutations), but they are disproportionately selected when they occur,” he added.
The team has examined genomic sequences deposited in GISAID, a global database that researchers use to share genetic information about the virus. It’s where scientists first noticed the emergence of disturbing new variants such as B.1.1.7, first seen in the UK, and B.1.351, first seen in South Africa.
“In late January 2021, our two independent SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance programs, based at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences in Albuquerque, New Mexico and the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, Louisiana, each saw an increasing number of. .. viruses with an S: Q677P mutation, and that this variant had increased in frequency in samples collected in late 2020 to mid-January, “the researchers wrote.
That abbreviation – Q677P – refers to the specific change in the amino acid that makes up that part of the spike protein.
They identified seven similar mutations in 677 – each appears to have arisen independently. They named them after birds to make them easier to identify.
One of these, called Robin 1, has shown up in more than 30 states in the US, mostly in the Midwest, they said. A second “first appeared from an Oct. 6, 2020 sample from Alabama and is called ‘Robin 2’ due to its resemblance to the parental Robin 1 subline,” they wrote. It is mainly seen in the southeast. One named Pelican was first seen in a monster from Oregon and has since appeared in 12 other states as well as Australia, Denmark, Sweden, and India.
Pelican was the first variety to catch the researchers’ attention, in part because it was found in nearly 28% of samples from Louisiana and 11% of samples from New Mexico.
The remaining Q677H sublines each contain about 100 or fewer sequences and are named: Yellowhammer, detected primarily in the southeastern US; Bluebird, mostly in the northeastern United States; Quail, primarily in the southwest and northeast; and Mockingbird , mainly in the states on the south-central and east coast, ”the research team wrote.
The United States has barely studied the genomic sequences of circulating coronaviruses, so if these variants have popped up in databases so often, they are likely very prevalent, the researchers said. The appearance of so many similar mutations at once is “remarkable,” they said.
“These variants were not discovered until mid-August 2020, but as of February 3, 2021, already account for more than 2,327 of the 102,462 genomes deposited with GISAID from the US,” they wrote. That deserves a lot of attention, they said.