TY - JOUR
TI - From delta to Omicron: S1-RBD/S2 mutation/deletion equilibrium in
SARS-CoV-2 defined variants
AU - Papanikolaou, Vasileios
AU - Chrysovergis, Aris
AU - Ragos, Vasileios and
AU - Tsiambas, Evangelos
AU - Katsinis, Spyros
AU - Manoli, Arezina and
AU - Papouliakos, Sotirios
AU - Roukas, Dimitrios
AU - Mastronikolis, Stylianos
AU - and Peschos, Dimitrios
AU - Batistatou, Anna
AU - Kyrodimos, Efthimios and
AU - Mastronikolis, Nicholas
JO - Gene and Gene Editing
PY - 2022
VL - 814
TODO - null
SP - null
PB - Elsevier
SN - 2376-3949, 2376-3957
TODO - 10.1016/j.gene.2021.146134
TODO - SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; Variants; Mutations; RNA; Genome
TODO - Coronavirus-related Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) in
2002/2003, Middle-East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) in 2012/2013, and
especially the current 2019/2021 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-2
(SARS-CoV-2) affected negatively the national health systems’ endurance
worldwide. SARS-Cov-2 virus belongs to lineage b of beta-CoVs
demonstrating a strong phylogenetic similarity with BatCoVRaTG13 type.
Spike (S) glycoprotein projections -consisting of two subunits S1/S2-
provide a unique crown-like formation (corona) on virion’s surface.
Concerning their functional role, S1 represents the main
receptor-binding domain (RBD), whereas S2 is involved in the virus-cell
membrane fusion mechanism. On Nov 26th 2021, WHO designated the new
SARS-CoV-2 strain - named Omicron, from letter “” in the Greek
alphabet - as a variant of concern (B.1.1529 variant). Potentially this
new variant is associated with high transmissibility leading to elevated
infectivity and probably increased re-infection rates. Its impact on
morbidity/mortality remains under investigation. In the current paper,
analyzing and comparing the alterations of SARS-CoV-2 S RNA sequences in
the defined variants (Alpha to Omicron), we observed some interesting
findings regarding the S1-RBD/S2 mutation/deletion equilibrium that
maybe affect and modify its activity.
ER -