One year into the pandemic: Short-term evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and emergence of new lineages.

ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic was officially declared on March 11^th, 2020. Since the very beginning, the spread of the virus has been tracked nearly in real-time by worldwide genome sequencing efforts. As of March 2021, more than 830,000 SARS-CoV-2 genomes have been uploaded in GISAID and this wealth of data allowed researchers to study the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 during this first pandemic year. In parallel, nomenclatures systems, often with poor consistency among each other, have been developed to designate emerging viral lineages. Despite general fears that the virus might mutate to become more virulent or transmissible, SARS-CoV-2 genetic diversity has remained relatively low during the first ~ 8 months of sustained human-to-human transmission. At the end of 2020/beginning of 2021,

SUBMITTER: Gonzalez-Candelas F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8074502 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature