SARS-CoV-2 Mutant Spectra at Different Depth Levels Reveal an Overwhelming Abundance of Low Frequency Mutations.

ABSTRACT: Populations of RNA viruses are composed of complex and dynamic mixtures of variant genomes that are termed mutant spectra or mutant clouds. This applies also to SARS-CoV-2, and mutations that are detected at low frequency in an infected individual can be dominant (represented in the consensus sequence) in subsequent variants of interest or variants of concern. Here we briefly review the main conclusions of our work on mutant spectrum characterization of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and SARS-CoV-2 at the nucleotide and amino acid levels and address the following two new questions derived from previous results: (i) how is the SARS-CoV-2 mutant and deletion spectrum composition in diagnostic samples, when examined at progressively lower cut-off mutant frequency values in ultra-deep sequencing; (ii

SUBMITTER: Martinez-Gonzalez B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9227345 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature