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. 2022 Apr;94(4):1689-1692.
doi: 10.1002/jmv.27451. Epub 2021 Nov 17.

SARS-CoV-2 AY.4.2 variant circulating in Italy: Genomic preliminary insight

Silvia Angeletti  1 , Marta Giovanetti  2 , Marta Fogolari  1 , Eleonora Cella  3 , Lucia De Florio  1 , Carla Lintas  1 , Roberta Veralli  1 , Maria Francesconi  1 , Francesca Caccuri  4 , Marina De Cesaris  1 , Cecilia De Flora  1 , Giancarlo Ceccarelli  5 , Silvia Spoto  6 , Arnaldo Caruso  4 , Stefano Pascarella  7 , Elisabetta Riva  8 , Massimo Ciccozzi  9
Affiliations

SARS-CoV-2 AY.4.2 variant circulating in Italy: Genomic preliminary insight

Silvia Angeletti et al. J Med Virol. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

The appearance of emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 carrying mutations into the spike protein has recently raised concern with respect to tracking their transmission and mitigating the impact in the evolving pandemic across countries. AY.4.2, a recently detected Delta variant sublineage, is considered a new variant under investigation (VUI) as it carries specific genetic signatures present in the spike protein, called Y145H and A222V. Here, using genomic epidemiology, we provide the first preliminary insight regarding the circulation of this emerging VUI in Italy.

Keywords: AY.4.2 variant; Italy; SARS-CoV-2; genomic surveillance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflict of interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Genomic epidemiology of the SARS‐CoV‐2 AY.4.2 variant in Italy. (A) Map of Italy with the number of AY.4.2 available genomes on GISAID as of October 28, 2021. The size of the circles is proportional to the number of genomes by region. Italian regions are colored according to five macroregions (NUTS, nomenclature of territorial units for statistics): Northeast, Northwest, Central, South, and Insular. (B) Maximum likelihood (ML) phylogenetic tree including the newly (n = 10) AY.4.2 isolates obtained in this study plus n = 13 434 representative SARS‐CoV‐2 genomes collected up to October 28, 2021. The genomes are colored according to their location (continent) and the color legend is on the left of the tree. (C) Variant maps of the AY.4.2 lineage‐defining‐mutations mapped against the SARS‐CoV‐2 genome structure. Most common mutations are highlighted
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Supplementary concepts