The effects of amino acid substitution of spike protein and genomic recombination on the evolution of SARS-CoV-2

Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbiology

Jie Xu¹  Letian Fang²  Guangwen Cao²  Yue Zhao²  Wenbin Liu²  Junyan Fan²  Jiaying Shen³ 

[1] Department of Foreign Languages, International Exchange Center for Military Medicine, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China;Key Laboratory of Biological Defense, Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China;Shanghai Key Laboratory of Medical Bioprotection, Shanghai, China;Department of Epidemiology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China;School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China;

关键词: SARS-CoV-2;    evolution;    Omicron;    spike protein;    amino acid substitution;    recombination;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmicb.2023.1228128

 received in 2023-05-24, accepted in 2023-07-03,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Over three years’ pandemic of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), multiple variants and novel subvariants have emerged successively, outcompeted earlier variants and become predominant. The sequential emergence of variants reflects the evolutionary process of mutation-selection-adaption of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Amino acid substitution/insertion/deletion in the spike protein causes altered viral antigenicity, transmissibility, and pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2. Early in the pandemic, D614G mutation conferred virus with advantages over previous variants and increased transmissibility, and it also laid a conservative background for subsequent substantial mutations. The role of genomic recombination in the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 raised increasing concern with the occurrence of novel recombinants such as Deltacron, XBB.1.5, XBB.1.9.1, and XBB.1.16 in the late phase of pandemic. Co-circulation of different variants and co-infection in immunocompromised patients accelerate the emergence of recombinants. Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 genomic variations, particularly spike protein mutation and recombination, is essential to identify ongoing changes in the viral genome and antigenic epitopes and thus leads to the development of new vaccine strategies and interventions.

【 授权许可】

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Copyright © 2023 Fang, Xu, Zhao, Fan, Shen, Liu and Cao.