Eurosurv. Expansion of a SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant with an 872 nt deletion encompassing ORF7a, ORF7b and ORF8, Poland, July to August 2021

[tetano]

Natalia Mazur-Panasiuk^1,* , Lukasz Rabalski^2,* , Tomasz Gromowski^1,3 , Grzegorz Nowicki⁴ , Michal Kowalski⁵ , Witold Wydmanski⁵ , Piotr Szulc⁵ , Maciej Kosinski² , Karolina Gackowska² , Natalia Drweska-Matelska⁴ , Jakub Grabowski⁴ , Anna Piotrowska-Mietelska⁶ , Boguslaw Szewczyk² , Krystyna Bienkowska-Szewczyk⁷ , Jakub Swadzba⁶ , Pawel Labaj⁵ , Maciej Grzybek⁸ , Krzysztof Pyrc¹

Routine genomic surveillance on samples from COVID-19 patients collected in Poland during summer 2021 revealed the emergence of a SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant with a large 872 nt deletion. This change, confirmed by Sanger and deep sequencing, causes complete loss of ORF7a, ORF7b, and ORF8 genes. The index case carrying the deletion is unknown. The standard pipeline for sequencing may mask this deletion with a long stretch of N’s. Effects of this deletion on phenotype or immune evasion needs further study.


full article

https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.39.2100902#html_fulltext