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A SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate would likely match all currently circulating strains

View ORCID ProfileBethany Dearlove, View ORCID ProfileEric Lewitus, View ORCID ProfileHongjun Bai, Yifan Li, View ORCID ProfileDaniel B. Reeves, View ORCID ProfileM. Gordon Joyce, Paul T. Scott, Mihret F. Amare, Sandhya Vasan, View ORCID ProfileNelson L. Michael, View ORCID ProfileKayvon Modjarrad, View ORCID ProfileMorgane Rolland
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.27.064774
Bethany Dearlove
1Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
2U.S. Military HIV Research Program, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
3Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, MD, USA
4Center for Infectious Diseases Research, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
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Eric Lewitus
1Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
2U.S. Military HIV Research Program, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
3Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, MD, USA
4Center for Infectious Diseases Research, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
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Hongjun Bai
1Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
2U.S. Military HIV Research Program, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
3Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, MD, USA
4Center for Infectious Diseases Research, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
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Yifan Li
1Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
2U.S. Military HIV Research Program, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
3Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, MD, USA
4Center for Infectious Diseases Research, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
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Daniel B. Reeves
5Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
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M. Gordon Joyce
1Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
3Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, MD, USA
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Paul T. Scott
1Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
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Mihret F. Amare
1Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
3Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, MD, USA
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Sandhya Vasan
2U.S. Military HIV Research Program, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
3Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, MD, USA
4Center for Infectious Diseases Research, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
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Nelson L. Michael
4Center for Infectious Diseases Research, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
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  • ORCID record for Nelson L. Michael
Kayvon Modjarrad
1Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
4Center for Infectious Diseases Research, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
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  • For correspondence: mrolland@hivresearch.org kayvon.modjarrad.civ@mail.mil
Morgane Rolland
1Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
2U.S. Military HIV Research Program, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
3Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, MD, USA
4Center for Infectious Diseases Research, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
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  • ORCID record for Morgane Rolland
  • For correspondence: mrolland@hivresearch.org kayvon.modjarrad.civ@mail.mil
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Abstract

The magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the urgency for a safe and effective vaccine. Here we analyzed SARS-CoV-2 sequence diversity across 5,700 sequences sampled since December 2019. The Spike protein, which is the target immunogen of most vaccine candidates, showed 93 sites with shared polymorphisms; only one of these mutations was found in more than 1% of currently circulating sequences. The minimal diversity found among SARS-CoV-2 sequences can be explained by drift and bottleneck events as the virus spread away from its original epicenter in Wuhan, China. Importantly, there is little evidence that the virus has adapted to its human host since December 2019. Our findings suggest that a single vaccine should be efficacious against current global strains.

One Sentence Summary The limited diversification of SARS-CoV-2 reflects drift and bottleneck events rather than adaptation to humans as the virus spread.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. This article is a US Government work. It is not subject to copyright under 17 USC 105 and is also made available for use under a CC0 license.
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Posted April 27, 2020.
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A SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate would likely match all currently circulating strains
Bethany Dearlove, Eric Lewitus, Hongjun Bai, Yifan Li, Daniel B. Reeves, M. Gordon Joyce, Paul T. Scott, Mihret F. Amare, Sandhya Vasan, Nelson L. Michael, Kayvon Modjarrad, Morgane Rolland
bioRxiv 2020.04.27.064774; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.27.064774
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A SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate would likely match all currently circulating strains
Bethany Dearlove, Eric Lewitus, Hongjun Bai, Yifan Li, Daniel B. Reeves, M. Gordon Joyce, Paul T. Scott, Mihret F. Amare, Sandhya Vasan, Nelson L. Michael, Kayvon Modjarrad, Morgane Rolland
bioRxiv 2020.04.27.064774; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.27.064774

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