1. Diverse SARS-CoV-2 variants preceded the initial COVID-19 outbreak in Croatia.
- Author
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Rokić F, Trgovec-Greif L, Sučić N, Čemeljić N, Grbeša ĐC, Svedružić Ž, Rukavina T, Vugrek O, and Jurak I
- Subjects
- Coronavirus 3C Proteases chemistry, Croatia epidemiology, Genome, Viral, Humans, Models, Molecular, Phylogeny, Protein Conformation, Whole Genome Sequencing, COVID-19 epidemiology, COVID-19 virology, Genetic Variation, SARS-CoV-2 genetics
- Abstract
We developed a next-generation SARS-CoV-2 sequencing platform and obtained the first SARS-CoV-2 sequences from patients in Croatia at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in the spring of 2020. Integrating the sequencing and the epidemiological data, we show that patients were infected with different SARS-CoV-2 variants belonging to different clades (mostly G and GH). This result confirms that there was widespread virus transmission early in 2020. Interestingly, we identified a unique mutation resulting in a V13I substitution in Nsp5A, the main viral protease, in a patient who had not received antiviral therapy.
- Published
- 2021
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