West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.
Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.
Nat Commun. 2022 May 6;13(1):2494. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-30219-5.
The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the fastest evolving pandemics in recent history. As such, the SARS-CoV-2 viral evolution needs to be continuously tracked. This study sequenced 1123 SARS-CoV-2 genomes from patient isolates (121 from arriving travellers and 1002 from communities) to track the molecular evolution and spatio-temporal dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 variants in Ghana. The data show that initial local transmission was dominated by B.1.1 lineage, but the second wave was overwhelmingly driven by the Alpha variant. Subsequently, an unheralded variant under monitoring, B.1.1.318, dominated transmission from April to June 2021 before being displaced by Delta variants, which were introduced into community transmission in May 2021. Mutational analysis indicated that variants that took hold in Ghana harboured transmission enhancing and immune escape spike substitutions. The observed rapid viral evolution demonstrates the potential for emergence of novel variants with greater mutational fitness as observed in other parts of the world.
新型冠状病毒病（COVID-19）疫情是近代史上发展最快的大流行之一。因此，需要不断跟踪 SARS-CoV-2 病毒的演变。本研究对 1123 例来自患者的 SARS-CoV-2 基因组进行了测序（121 例来自入境旅行者，1002 例来自社区），以追踪 SARS-CoV-2 变异株在加纳的分子进化和时空动态。数据显示，最初的本地传播主要由 B.1.1 谱系主导，但第二波则主要由 Alpha 变异株驱动。随后，在 2021 年 4 月至 6 月期间，一种受到监测的突发变异株 B.1.1.318 主导了传播，随后被 Delta 变异株取代，Delta 变异株于 2021 年 5 月传入社区传播。突变分析表明，在加纳立足的变异株具有传播增强和免疫逃逸的刺突取代。观察到的快速病毒进化表明，新型变异株可能会出现，其突变适应性更强，这在世界其他地区已经观察到。
