Genome Recombination between the Delta and Alpha Variants of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
Tsuyoshi Sekizuka, Kentaro Itokawa, Masumichi Saito, Michitsugu Shimatani, Shutoku Matsuyama, Hideki Hasegawa, Tomoya Saito, Makoto Kuroda
Abstract
Prominent genomic recombination has been observed between the Delta and Alpha variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), isolated from clinical specimens in Japan. Interestingly, the recombination variant detected in this study carries a spike protein identical to that in the domestic Delta variant, thereby suggesting that further risks would not be associated with infectivity and immune escape. The recombinant was classified as an XC lineage in the PANGOLIN database. It is necessary to intensively study such marked genetic variations and characterize emerging variants after careful verification of their lineage and clade assignment.