Continued Complexity of Mutations in Omicron Sublineages

Austin N Spratt; Saathvik R Kannan; Kalicharan Sharma; Shrikesh Sachdev; Shree L Kandasamy; Anders Sönnerborg; Christian L Lorson; Kamal Singh

doi:10.3390/biomedicines10102593

Continued Complexity of Mutations in Omicron Sublineages

Biomedicines. 2022 Oct 16;10(10):2593. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines10102593.

Authors

Austin N Spratt¹, Saathvik R Kannan¹, Kalicharan Sharma², Shrikesh Sachdev¹, Shree L Kandasamy¹, Anders Sönnerborg^{1

3}, Christian L Lorson⁴, Kamal Singh^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Bond Life Sciences Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
² Department of Pharmacology, Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University, New Delhi 110017, India.
³ Department of Laboratory Medicine, Division of Clinical Microbiology, Karolinska Institute, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden.
⁴ Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.

Abstract

The latest SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern (VOC), Omicron (B.1.1.529), has diversified into more than 300 sublineages. With an expanding number of newly emerging sublineages, the mutation profile is also becoming complicated. There exist mutually exclusive and revertant mutations in different sublineages. Omicron sublineages share some common mutations with previous VOCs (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta), indicating an evolutionary relationship between these VOCs. A diverse mutation profile at the spike-antibody interface, flexibility of the regions harboring mutations, mutation types, and coexisting mutations suggest that SARS-CoV-2's evolution is far from over.

Keywords: Omicron sublineages; molecular dynamics; mutant modeling; revertant mutations; structural flexibility; variant of concern (VOC).

Grants and funding

ECG-KS/University of Missouri System