The virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, presents at least six strains. Despite its mutations, the virus shows little variability, and this is good news for researchers working on a viable vaccine. Published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, the ‘most extensive’ study ever carried out on SARS-CoV-2 sequencing drew from the analysis of 48,635 coronavirus genomes, which were isolated by researchers in labs all over the world.
Researchers worldwide acquired these genomes from laboratories. The researchers at the University of Bologna in Italy mapped the spread and the mutations of the virus during its journey to all continents. The findings show that the novel coronavirus presents little variability, approximately seven mutations per sample. Common influenza has a variability rate that is more than double, researchers explained.
Currently, six types of novel coronavirus have been revealed
“The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is presumably already optimised to affect human beings, and this explains its low evolutionary change,” said Federico Giorgi, a researcher at the University of Bologna, and coordinator of the study. “This means that the treatments we are developing, including a vaccine, might be effective against all the virus strains,” Giorgi said. The original one is the L strain, which appeared in Wuhan in December 2019. Its first mutation, the S strain appeared at the beginning of 2020, while, since mid-January, we have had strains V and G, they said. Till date strain G is the most widespread. It mutated into strains GR and GH at the end of February, according to the researchers.
