Molecular Characterization of Whole-Genome SARS-CoV-2 from the First Suspected Cases of the XE Variant in the Lazio Region, Italy.

ABSTRACT: We report two cases of SARS-CoV-2 recombinant variant XE detected in nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) of hospitalized patients with no evident epidemiological link in Lazio, Central Italy. Whole-Genome Sequencing (WGS) performed on an Ion Torrent GSS5 platform according to Italian flash surveys showed genomes corresponding to the PANGOLIN unclassified lineage and the Nextclade XE clade. Further analyses were then carried out to investigate more deeply the genetic characteristics of these XE-like sequences. When phylogenetic trees, by using IQ-TREE, were built splitting the genome into two regions according to the putative XE recombination site, the upstream and downstream regions were seen to be clustered near BA.1 and BA.2 sequences, respectively. However, our XE-like sequences clustered separa

SUBMITTER: Rueca M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9497488 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature