Emergence of the BA.2.87.1 lineage of SARS-CoV-2 in South Africa, a highly diverged BA.2-related lineage.

ABSTRACT: The emergence of various SARS-CoV-2 lineages with adaptive mutations is of significant concern worldwide, especially when these mutations enhance the virus's ability to either evade immune responses or transmit more efficiently. Between September and December 2023, a highly diverged BA.2-related lineage, designated BA.2.87.1, was detected through diagnostic testing, syndromic surveillance, and wastewater surveillance in the Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and Gauteng provinces of South Africa. This lineage harbours 20 amino acid substitutions in Spike protein relative to baseline BA.2, including at antigenic sites of the receptor-binding domain (including N417T, K444N, V445G, L452M, N460K, K478T, N481K, and R493Q) and, most strikingly, large deletions of the N-terminal dom

SUBMITTER: Kekana D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12642706 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature