Identification of Genotypic Variants and its Proteomic mutations of Brazilian SARS-CoV-2 Isolates

Abstract

The second wave of COVID-19, which is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is rapidly spreading over the world. The mechanism behind the escaping from current antivirals is still not clear, due to the occurrence of continuous variants in SARS-CoV-2 genomes. Brazil is the world’s second most COVID-19-affected country. In the present study, we identified the genomic and proteomic variants of Brazilian SARS-CoV-2 isolates. We identified 16 different genotypic variants were found among the 27 isolates. The genotypes of three isolates such as Bra/1236/2021 (G15), Bra/MASP2C844R2/2020 (G11), and Bra/RJ-DCVN5/2020 (G9) have a unique mutant in NSP4 (S184N), 2’O-Mutase (R216N), membrane protein (A2V) and Envelope protein (V5A). A mutation in RdRp of SARS-CoV-2, particularly the change of Pro to Leu at 323 resulted in the stabilization of the structure in BRA/CD1739-P4/2020. NSP4, NSP5 protein mutants are more virulent in Genotype 15 and 16. A fast protein folding rate changes the structural stability and leads to escape for current antivirals. Thus, our findings help researchers to develop the best potent antivirals based on the new mutant of Brazilian isolates.