Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34848826›Full record

ArticleCommunications biology2021

Template switching and duplications in SARS-CoV-2 genomes give rise to insertion variants that merit monitoring.

Sofya K Garushyants, Igor B Rogozin, Eugene V Koonin

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Communications biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
35citing papers in PubMed
2.7field-weighted citation impact, top 8% of its field
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

35 citing papers in PubMed, 51 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Highly Recurrent Multinucleotide Mutations in SARS-CoV-2.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025
    Article
  3. Article
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  8. Review
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  11. Review
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. The Mutational Landscape of SARS-CoV-2.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023
    Article
  15. Correlated substitutions reveal SARS-like coronaviruses recombine frequently with a diverse set of structured gene pools.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023
    Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. The origins of COVID-19 pandemic: A brief overview.Transboundary and emerging diseases · 2022
    Review
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Sofya K GarushyantsNational Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Igor B RogozinNational Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Eugene V KooninNational Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. koonin@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3943-8299
National Institutes of Health · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The appearance of multiple new SARS-CoV-2 variants during the COVID-19 pandemic is a matter of grave concern. Some of these variants, such as B.1.617.2, B.1.1.7, and B.1.351, manifest higher infectivity and virulence than the earlier SARS-CoV-2 variants, with potential dramatic effects on the course of the pandemic. So far, analysis of new SARS-CoV-2 variants focused primarily on nucleotide substitutions and short deletions that are readily identifiable by comparison to consensus genome sequences. In contrast, insertions have largely escaped the attention of researchers although the furin site insert in the Spike (S) protein is thought to be a determinant of SARS-CoV-2 virulence. Here, we identify 346 unique inserts of different lengths in SARS-CoV-2 genomes and present evidence that these inserts reflect actual virus variance rather than sequencing artifacts. Two principal mechanisms appear to account for the inserts in the SARS-CoV-2 genomes, polymerase slippage and template switch that might be associated with the synthesis of subgenomic RNAs. At least three inserts in the N-terminal domain of the S protein are predicted to lead to escape from neutralizing antibodies, whereas other inserts might result in escape from T-cell immunity. Thus, inserts in the S protein can affect its antigenic properties and merit monitoring.

Indexed as

COVID-19Genome, ViralSARS-CoV-2Gene DuplicationHumansMutagenesis, InsertionalRNA, ViralSpike Glycoprotein, CoronavirusRNA, ViralSpike Glycoprotein, Coronavirusspike protein, SARS-CoV-2

Identifiers

PMID34848826
PMCPMC8632935
OpenAlexW3216224521

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.