Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32820179›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2020

Evolutionary and structural analyses of SARS-CoV-2 D614G spike protein mutation now documented worldwide.

Sandra Isabel, Lucía Graña-Miraglia, Jahir M Gutierrez, Cedoljub Bundalovic-Torma, Helen E Groves, Marc R Isabel, AliReza Eshaghi, Samir N Patel, Jonathan B Gubbay, Tomi Poutanen and 2 more

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 127 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
127citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

127 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Trial
  5. Trial
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. AnnCovDB: a manually curated annotation database for mutations in SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.Database : the journal of biological databases and curation · 2025
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

67 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

12 authors.

Sandra Isabel *Infectious Diseases Division, Department of Paediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. Sandra.Isabel@sickkids.ca.
Lucía Graña-Miraglia *Centre for the Analysis of Genome Evolution and Function, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Jahir M Gutierrez *, Layer 6 AI, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Cedoljub Bundalovic-Torma *Centre for the Analysis of Genome Evolution and Function, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Helen E Groves *Infectious Diseases Division, Department of Paediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Marc R IsabelDépartement de mathématique, Université Laval, Québec City, Canada.
AliReza EshaghiPublic Health Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Samir N PatelPublic Health Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Jonathan B GubbayInfectious Diseases Division, Department of Paediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Tomi Poutanen, Layer 6 AI, Toronto, ON, Canada.
David S GuttmanCentre for the Analysis of Genome Evolution and Function, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Susan M PoutanenDepartment of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.

Funding

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada CP-151952
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was declared on March 11, 2020 by the World Health Organization. As of the 31st of May, 2020, there have been more than 6 million COVID-19 cases diagnosed worldwide and over 370,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins. Thousands of SARS-CoV-2 strains have been sequenced to date, providing a valuable opportunity to investigate the evolution of the virus on a global scale. We performed a phylogenetic analysis of over 1,225 SARS-CoV-2 genomes spanning from late December 2019 to mid-March 2020. We identified a missense mutation, D614G, in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, which has emerged as a predominant clade in Europe (954 of 1,449 (66%) sequences) and is spreading worldwide (1,237 of 2,795 (44%) sequences). Molecular dating analysis estimated the emergence of this clade around mid-to-late January (10-25 January) 2020. We also applied structural bioinformatics to assess the potential impact of D614G on the virulence and epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2. In silico analyses on the spike protein structure suggests that the mutation is most likely neutral to protein function as it relates to its interaction with the human ACE2 receptor. The lack of clinical metadata available prevented our investigation of association between viral clade and disease severity phenotype. Future work that can leverage clinical outcome data with both viral and human genomic diversity is needed to monitor the pandemic.

Indexed as

Evolution, MolecularAdolescentAdultAgedAged, 80 and overAngiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2Base SequenceBetacoronavirusChildChild, PreschoolComputer SimulationCoronavirus InfectionsCOVID-19FemaleGenome, ViralHumansACE2 protein, humanAngiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2Peptidyl-Dipeptidase ASpike Glycoprotein, Coronavirusspike protein, SARS-CoV-2

Identifiers

PMID32820179
PMCPMC7441380

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.