Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Frankfurt am Main from October to December 2020 Reveals High Viral Diversity Including Spike Mutation N501Y in B.1.1.70 and B.1.1.7.

ABSTRACT:

Background

International travel is a major driver of the introduction and spread of SARS-CoV-2.

Aim

To investigate SARS-CoV-2 genetic diversity in the region of a major transport hub in Germany, we characterized the viral sequence diversity of the SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating in Frankfurt am Main, the city with the largest airport in Germany, from the end of October to the end of December 2020.

Methods

In total, we recovered 136 SARS-CoV-2 genomes from nasopharyngeal swab samples. We isolated 104 isolates that were grown in cell culture and RNA from the recovered viruses and subjected them to full-genome sequence analysis. In addition, 32 nasopharyngeal swab samples were directly sequenced.

Results and conclusion

We found 28 different lineages of SARS-CoV-2

SUBMITTER: Widera M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8065810 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature