Following some increased interest tonight in S:E484, a new focal build is now up!

This build is created by pulling out all sequences with a mutation at nucleotide 23012 & adding background sequences.

1/8

@jbloom_lab @Tuliodna

https://nextstrain.org/groups/neherlab/ncov/S.E484K?c=gt-S_484

Mutations at nucleotide 23012 causes changes in the amino-acid (AA) at position 484 in Spike. We can see here it changes from E (green) to Q (yellow), K (blue), & R (red).

2/8

Changes at position 484 are found most prominently in the 501Y.V2 variant (originating in South Africa), ID by @Tuliodna @rjlessells & team
as well as in a cluster of sequences primarily in Brazil, ID by @atrvlncc & team

3/8

https://nextstrain.org/groups/neherlab/ncov/S.E484K?c=gt-S_484&label=mlabel:20C/C23664T&p=grid&r=country

https://nextstrain.org/groups/neherlab/ncov/S.E484K?c=gt-S_484&label=mlabel:20B/G28975T&p=grid&r=country

You can read more about each of these variants in these preprints:

501Y.V2: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.21.20248640v1

S:E484K in Brazil: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.23.20248598v1.article-info

4/8

However, they're also found in many other places around the world - this mutation has arisen multiple times in many places. Everywhere with a dot that's not just green has had sequences with a change at S:E484.

5/8

Importantly, as pointed out by @jbloom_lab, mutations at S:E484 have been popping up since very early in 2020. However, many of these don't seem to have expanded into larger clusters.

6/8 https://twitter.com/jbloom_lab/status/1346535515164610560

Many labs around the world are hard at work looking into the impact of S:E484 mutations. You can read some just-released work by @jbloom_lab here:

https://twitter.com/jbloom_lab/status/1346442000472580098

7/8

This build & S:E484 aren't yet linked on my SARS-CoV-2 Variant Tracking site - but they will be up very soon! I'll be adding it to the regularly tracked & updated builds

8/8 https://github.com/hodcroftlab/covariants