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Updated: Dec 20, 2025

Determining the Likelihood of Variant Pathogenicity Using Amino Acid-level Signal-to-Noise Analysis of Genetic Variation
Published on: January 16, 2019
Overwhelming mutations or SNPs of SARS-CoV-2: A point of caution
1Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia.
Abstract:
The morbidity of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is reaching 3 Million landmark causing and a serious public health concern globally and it is enigmatic how several antiviral and antibody treatments were not effective in the different period across the globe. With the drastic increasing number of positive cases around the world WHO raised the importance in the assessment of the risk of spread and understanding genetic modifications that could have occurred in the SARS-CoV-2. Using all available deep sequencing data of complete genome from all over the world (NCBI repository), we identified several hundreds of point mutations or SNPs in SARS-CoV-2 all across the genome. This could be the cause for the constant change and differed virulence with an increase in mortality and morbidity. Among the 12 different countries (one sequence from each country) with complete genome sequencing data, we noted the 47 key point mutations or SNPs located along the entire genome that might have impact in the virulence and response to different antivirals against SARS-CoV-2. In this regard, key viral proteins of spike glycoprotein, Nsp1, RdRp and the ORF8 region got heavily mutated within these 3 months via person-to-person passage. We also discuss what could be the possible cause of this rapid mutation in the SARS-CoV-2.
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