Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 Spike gene by sanger sequencing
Tiago Souza Salles, Andréa Cony Cavalcanti, Fábio Burack da Costa, Vanessa Zaquieu Dias, Leandro Magalhães de Souza, Marcelo Damião Ferreira de Meneses, José Antônio Suzano da Silva, Cinthya Domingues Amaral, Jhonatan Ramos Felix, Duleide Alves Pereira, Stefanella Boatto, Maria Angélica Arpon Marandino Guimarães, Davis Ferreira, Renata Campos Azevedo
Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2 responsible for the ongoing COVID pandemic reveals particular evolutionary dynamics and an extensive polymorphism, mainly in Spike gene. Monitoring the S gene mutations is crucial for successful controlling measures and detecting variants that can evade vaccine immunity. Even after the costs reduction resulting from the pandemic, the new generation sequencing methodologies remain unavailable to a large number of scientific groups. Therefore, to support the urgent surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 S gene, this work describes a new feasible protocol for complete nucleotide sequencing of the S gene using the Sanger technique. Such a methodology could be easily adopted by any laboratory with experience in sequencing, adding to effective surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 spreading and evolution.