Characterization and analysis of linear epitopes corresponding to SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in Jilin Province, China

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its variants have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and shown serious social influence worldwide. Jilin Province, China, experienced the first wave of the outbreak from December 2020 to February 2021. Here, we analyzed the genomic characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in Jilin province using a phylogeographic tree and found that clinical isolates belonged to the B.1 lineage, which was considered to be the ancestral lineage. Several dominant SARS-CoV-2 specific linear B cell epitopes that reacted with the convalescent sera were also analysed and identified using a peptide microarray composed of S, M, and E proteins. Moreover, the serum of convalescent patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 showed neutralizing activity against four widely spreading SARS-CoV-2 variants; however, significant differences were observed in neutralizing activities against different SARS-CoV-2 variants. These data provide important information on genomic characteristics, linear epitopes, and neutralizing activity of SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in Jilin Province, China, which may aid in understanding disease patterns and regional aspects of the pandemic.