Evaluating the Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Mutation D614G on Transmissibility and Pathogenicity
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A frame that forgets how it found something cannot be audited. These are the routes that admitted this work.
No Canadian affiliation. An affiliation-only frame — the usual design — would never have seen this work. It is one of the works that make the case for inverting the frame.
Abstract
Global dispersal and increasing frequency of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variant D614G are suggestive of a selective advantage but may also be due to a random founder effect. We investigate the hypothesis for positive selection of spike D614G in the United Kingdom using more than 25,000 whole genome SARS-CoV-2 sequences. Despite the availability of a large dataset, well represented by both spike 614 variants, not all approaches showed a conclusive signal of positive selection. Population genetic analysis indicates that 614G increases in frequency relative to 614D in a manner consistent with a selective advantage. We do not find any indication that patients infected with the spike 614G variant have higher COVID-19 mortality or clinical severity, but 614G is associated with higher viral load and younger age of patients. Significant differences in growth and size of 614G phylogenetic clusters indicate a need for continued study of this variant.
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The record
- Venue
- Cell
- Topic
- SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Field
- Medicine
- Canadian institutions
- —
- Funders
- European Regional Development FundBiotechnology and Biological Sciences Research CouncilMedical Research CouncilDirectorate for Biological SciencesCANDU Owners GroupEuropean CommissionWellcome TrustAcademy of Medical SciencesNational Institute for Health and Care ResearchLlywodraeth CymruCancer Research UK
- Keywords
- BiologyTransmissibility (structural dynamics)Spike (software development)GeneticsMutationNegative selectionGenomeGenetic variationPopulationSelection (genetic algorithm)GeneDemography
- Has abstract in OpenAlex
- yes