Abstract
Wide-scale SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing is critical to monitoring and understanding viral evolution during the ongoing pandemic. Variants first detected in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil have spread to multiple countries. We have developed a software tool, Variant Database (VDB), for quickly examining the changing landscape of spike mutations. Using this tool, we detected an emerging lineage of viral isolates in the New York region that shares mutations with previously reported variants. The most common sets of spike mutations in this lineage (now designated as B.1.526) are L5F, T95I, D253G, E484K or S477N, D614G, and A701V. This lineage appeared in late November 2020, and isolates from this lineage account for ~25% of coronavirus genomes sequenced and deposited from New York during February 2021.
Competing Interest Statement
P.J.B. is a co-inventor on a provisional application from the California Institute of Technology for the use of mosaic nanoparticles as coronavirus immunogens. P.J.B. and C.O.B. are co-inventors on a provisional application for several anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies.
Footnotes
This version has updated Table 2 to include sequencing of samples collected during February 2021.
