Emergence of the First Strains of SARS-CoV-2 Lineage B.1.1.7 in Romania: Genomic Analysis
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Abstract
The United Kingdom reported the emergence of a new and highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variant (B.1.1.7) that rapidly spread to other countries. The impact of this new mutation—which occurs in the S protein—on infectivity, virulence, and current vaccine effectiveness is still under evaluation.
Objective
The aim of this study is to sequence SARS-CoV-2 samples of cases in Romania to detect the B.1.1.7 variant and compare these samples with sequences submitted to GISAID.
Methods
SARS-CoV-2 samples were sequenced and amino acid substitution analysis was performed using the CoV-GLUE platform.
Results
We have identified the first cases of the B.1.1.7 variant in samples collected from Romanian patients, of which one was traced to the region of the United Kingdom where the new variant was originally sequenced. Mutations in nonstructural protein 3 (Nsp3; N844S and D455N) and ORF3a (L15F) were also detected, indicating common ancestry with UK strains as well as remote connections with strains from Nagasaki, Japan.
Conclusions
These results indicate, for the first time, the presence and characteristics of the new variant B.1.1.7 in Romania and underscore the need for increased genomic sequencing in patients with confirmed COVID-19.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.01.29.21250643: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Consensus sequence and available Romanian sequences, from different laboratories, belonging to clade B.1.1.7 in Romania, in GISAID were aligned to reference strain using MAFFT algorithm and maximum likelihood trees were obtained with MegaX software. MAFFTsuggested: (MAFFT, RRID:SCR_011811)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecogniz…SciScore for 10.1101/2021.01.29.21250643: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Consensus sequence and available Romanian sequences, from different laboratories, belonging to clade B.1.1.7 in Romania, in GISAID were aligned to reference strain using MAFFT algorithm and maximum likelihood trees were obtained with MegaX software. MAFFTsuggested: (MAFFT, RRID:SCR_011811)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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