TY - JOUR T1 - Recurrent emergence and transmission of a SARS-CoV-2 Spike deletion ΔH69/V70 JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2020.12.14.422555 SP - 2020.12.14.422555 AU - SA Kemp AU - RP Datir AU - DA Collier AU - IATM Ferreira AU - A Carabelli AU - W Harvey AU - DL Robertson AU - RK Gupta Y1 - 2020/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/12/14/2020.12.14.422555.abstract N2 - SARS-CoV-2 Spike amino acid replacements occur relatively frequently in the receptor binding domain (RBD) and some have a consequences for immune recognition. Here we report recurrent emergence and significant onward transmission of a six nucleotide deletion in the Spike gene, which results in the loss of two amino acids: ΔH69/V70. Of particular note this deletion often follows the receptor binding motif amino acid replacements N501Y, N439K and Y453F. In addition, we report a sub-lineage of over 350 sequences bearing seven spike mutations across the RBD (N501Y, A570D), S1 (ΔH69/V70) and S2 (P681H, T716I, S982A and D1118H) in England. These mutations have possibly arisen as a result of the virus evolving from immune selection pressure in infected individuals. Enhanced surveillance for the ΔH69/V70 deletion with and without RBD mutations should be considered as a priority.Competing Interest StatementRKG has received consulting fees from UMOVIS lab, Gilead Sciences and ViiV Healthcare, and a research grant from InvisiSmart Technologies. ER -