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Hartley PD, Tillett RL, AuCoin DP, Sevinsky JR, Xu Y, Gorzalski A, Pandori M, Buttery E, Hansen H, Picker MA, Rossetto CC, Verma SC. Genomic surveillance of Nevada patients revealed prevalence of unique SARS-CoV-2 variants bearing mutations in the RdRp gene. J Genet Genomics 2021; 48:40-51. [PMID: 33820739 PMCID: PMC7891100 DOI: 10.1016/j.jgg.2021.01.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2020] [Revised: 01/20/2021] [Accepted: 01/22/2021] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Patients with signs of COVID-19 were tested through diagnostic RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 using RNA extracted from the nasopharyngeal/nasal swabs. To determine the variants of SARS-CoV-2 circulating in the state of Nevada, specimens from 200 COVID-19 patients were sequenced through our robust sequencing platform, which enabled sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 from specimens with even very low viral loads, without the need of culture-based amplification. High genome coverage allowed the identification of single and multi-nucleotide variants in SARS-CoV-2 in the community and their phylogenetic relationships with other variants present during the same period of the outbreak. We report the occurrence of a novel mutation at 323aa (314aa of orf1b) of nsp12 (RNA-dependent RNA polymerase) changed to phenylalanine (F) from proline (P), in the first reported isolate of SARS-CoV-2, Wuhan-Hu-1. This 323F variant was present at a very high frequency in Northern Nevada. Structural modeling determined this mutation in the interface domain, which is important for the association of accessory proteins required for the polymerase. In conclusion, we report the introduction of specific SARS-CoV-2 variants at very high frequency in distinct geographic locations, which is important for understanding the evolution and circulation of SARS-CoV-2 variants of public health importance, while it circulates in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul D Hartley
- Nevada Genomics Center, Reno, NV 89557, USA; University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - Richard L Tillett
- Nevada Institute of Personalized Medicine, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA
| | - David P AuCoin
- University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557, USA; Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | | | - Yanji Xu
- University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557, USA; Nevada Center for Bioinformatics, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - Andrew Gorzalski
- University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557, USA; Nevada State Public Health Laboratory, Reno, NV 89503, USA
| | - Mark Pandori
- University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557, USA; Nevada State Public Health Laboratory, Reno, NV 89503, USA
| | - Erin Buttery
- Southern Nevada Public Health Laboratory of the Southern Nevada Health District, Las Vegas, NV 89107, USA
| | - Holly Hansen
- Southern Nevada Public Health Laboratory of the Southern Nevada Health District, Las Vegas, NV 89107, USA
| | - Michael A Picker
- Southern Nevada Public Health Laboratory of the Southern Nevada Health District, Las Vegas, NV 89107, USA
| | - Cyprian C Rossetto
- University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557, USA; Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, Reno, NV 89557, USA.
| | - Subhash C Verma
- University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV 89557, USA; Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, Reno, NV 89557, USA.
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