Comparison of SARS-CoV-2 Virus Variant Genomes Detected in China and the USA

Abstract

In the spreading period of the SARS-CoV-2 virus which is the cause of COVID-19 in the world, it is seen that the genome of the virus mutates and this mutation processes create new SARS-CoV-2 variants. In this study, we examined two variant genome groups. The first group includes the genomes of variants detected in China, while the second includes those detected in the USA. We applied the multiple sequence alignment process on these publicly available SARS-CoV-2 virus genomes and reported the obtained results. There are 87 genomes for China variants and 200 for USA variants in the used data. The analyses were made for each domain of the genomes. The results of the analysis show that the variant genomes in the two SARS-CoV-2 groups examined have some similar mutation features as well as different characteristics. It is also one of the results obtained in this study that the domains where the most mutations are detected on the genome are regions that have properties that affect the interaction of the virus with the host.