D614G Mutation is Dominant Variant in COVID-19 Pandemic

Jan, 2021 - By WMR

The D614G occupied an increasing proportion of known variants from February 2020 and started appearing in many parts of the world.

In recent decades, COVID-19 is the third major outbreak caused by zoonotic beta-coronavirus. The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is rapidly spreading and has developed many mutations during the swift spread across the globe. According to some health experts, the novel coronavirus may live for about a year or more until the first treatment or vaccine is available. The first case was reported in China and has made its way to every corner of the world. As of September 28, the virus has infected more than 33 million people and killed around 996,000 individuals worldwide.

Now, according to the research team from the University of Hong Kong, D614G mutations have high infectivity, which may account for the rapid increase in the dominant position in all regions where it has emerged. The research was published in September 2020 in the preprint server medRxiv. The D614G mutation is one where aspartic acid residues at position 614 are replaced by glycine. Initially, D614G was spotted in samples collected in Germany and China in late January 2020.

This mutant occupied an increasing proportion of known variants from February 2020 and started appearing in many parts of the world. This has led many researchers to speculate that it is capable of spreading faster or easier than the wild-type virus D614. According to previous studies, the original outbreak had only D614 mutations, the D614G emerged after the virus appeared in Europe. During this research, the team found that the ratio of the G614 strain to the D614 strain increased to become the dominant strain in every country. According to the researchers, further research is needed to understand how other mutations in strains with the D614G affect generation time and transmissibility.