Variant analysis of SARS-CoV-2 strains in Middle Eastern countries
BackgroundSARS-CoV-2 is diverging from the initial Wuhan serotype, and different variants of the virus are reported. Mapping the variant strains and studying their pattern of evolution will provide better insights into the pandemic spread MethodsData on different SARS-CoV2 for WHO EMRO countries were obtained from the Chinese National Genomics Data Center (NGDC), Genbank and the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID). Multiple sequence alignments (MSA) was performed to study the evolutionary relationship between the genomes. Variant calling, genome and variant alignment were performed to track the strains in each country. Evolutionary and phylogenetic analysis is used to explore the evolutionary hypothesis. FindingsOf the total 50 samples, 4 samples did not contain any variants. Variant calling identified 379 variants. Earliest strains are found in Iranian samples. Variant alignment indicates Iran samples have a low variant frequency. Saudi Arabia has formed an outgroup. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait were the most evolved genomes and are the countries with the highest number of cases per million. InterpretationIran was exposed to the virus earlier than other countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. FundingNone