Population Bottlenecks and Intra-host Evolution During Human-to-Human Transmission of SARS-CoV-2
Daxi Wang, Yanqun Wang, Wanying Sun, Lu Zhang, Jingkai Ji, Zhaoyong Zhang, Xinyi Cheng, Yimin Li, Fei Xiao, Airu Zhu, Bei Zhong, Shicong Ruan, Jiandong Li, Jiandong Li, Peidi Ren, Zhihua Ou, Minfeng Xiao, Min Li, Ziqing Deng, Huanzi Zhong, Fuqiang Li, Wenjing Wang, Yong‐Wei Zhang, Weijun Chen, Shida Zhu, Xun Xu, Xin Jin, Jingxian Zhao, Jingxian Zhao, Nanshan Zhong, Wenwei Zhang, Jincun Zhao, Jincun Zhao, Junhua Li, Junhua Li, Yonghao Xu
Abstract
The emergence of the novel human coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, causes a global COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic. Here, we have characterized and compared viral populations of SARS-CoV-2 among COVID-19 patients within and across households. Our work showed an active viral replication activity in the human respiratory tract and the co-existence of genetically distinct viruses within the same host. The inter-host comparison among viral populations further revealed a narrow transmission bottleneck between patients from the same households, suggesting a dominated role of stochastic dynamics in both inter-host and intra-host evolutions.